New Rescue Remedy Suggested For Children With Mild Asthma

A new study suggests children with mild persistent asthma can avoid having to use inhaled steroids daily. The findings, published in The Lancet, offer a possible alternative treatment therapy of inhaled steroids used alongside a bronchodilator such as albuterol to relieve symptoms as needed.

Typically even children with only mild asthma that is under control will inhale one or two puffs of cortisteroids morning and evening to prevent an asthma attack. The steroids used, such as beclomethasone, come with a risk of side effects such as growth restriction.

The study, carried out by the University of Arizona, found those side effects could potentially be avoided by employing their rescue remedy instead. Bronchodilators are not always completely effective in relieving the inflammation of the airways that is the main symptom of asthma and so some patients continue to use them alongside inhaled steroids daily.

The new step-down treatment proposed by the University of Arizona’s findings would mean a patient using inhaled steroids and albuterol as rescue therapy for symptom relief rather than a rigid daily regime of inhaled steroids. That could mean more irregular but possibly effective use of the steroids.

The study, published in The Lancet, involved 288 children aged six to 18 split into four groups over a 44-week period with each group given variations on daily inhaled steroids and albuterol for symptom relief. The research team concluded that using the steroids and albuterol as soon as symptoms appeared was almost as beneficial a treatment as the daily inhaled steroids.

Their findings on the possible effects of their proposed step-down treatment on growth restriction were, they concluded, “suggestive but statistically borderline” and they proposed that more research involving a larger study group was needed.

The study findings reiterated that the step-down treatment was only applicable to children with mild asthma and those with moderate or severe asthma will continue to need to take inhaled steroids daily.