Asthma Treatment May Be Revised

A U.S. national study has found steroidal inhalers control symptoms of asthma in children but don’t stall the disease’s progression.

The findings, published in the New England Journal of Medicine, could change treatment standards for the respiratory problem, reports The Wall Street Journal. Currently such inhaled steroids are being prescribed for long-term use for children under 5 years old.

The study was funded by the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute, a unit of the National Institutes of Health. An NIH advisory panel, meeting in Chicago, may revise the federal guidelines for the inhalers, the report said.

Dr. Fernando Martinez, a professor of pediatrics at the University of Arizona and a member of the NIH advisory panel, said doctors have insisted that parents give their children inhaled steroids in the belief that they reduce asthma in the long term. We now have solid evidence that is not the case, he said.

The American Academy of Allergy Asthma & Immunology estimates that about 9 million U.S. children under 18 suffer from asthma.