Steroids May Be Harming Wheezing Children
Asthma
Here’s a troubling decision for parents: approve a steroid for their wheezing child who is gasping for breath, knowing it may not even be helping and stunt their childs growth?
That would bd difficult: watching your child gasp for breath. Two independent studies show steroids may not even work.
Steroid drugs, a common treatment for young children prone to wheezing and colds, do not help and may even be harmful, according to new research. Preschoolers in Britain who were hospitalized with a wheezing attack and treated with the steroid prednisolone stayed just as long as other children who were given dummy pills.
In another study, Canadian children who had previous wheezing trouble and who took the steroid fluticasone as a preventive measure showed modest improvement, but the side effect of possible stunted growth outweighed the benefit, researchers said.
Both studies were reported in Thursday’s New England Journal of Medicine.
For the study, the defination for Wheezing: a high-pitched whistling noise as a person exhales, occurs when air struggles to get through narrowed airways. It’s a frightening symptom that often sends parents to emergency rooms, thinking their kids can’t breathe.
The studies were funded by both Asthama groups and Pharmaceutical companies. The study was funded by GlaxoSmithKline PLC, which makes the inhaled asthma medicine Flovent, a brand of fluticasone. Lead author Dr. Francine Ducharme of the University of Montreal reports receiving research grants from Glaxo and other drug makers.
The British research was paid for by the nonprofit Asthma UK. Several authors report receiving fees and support from various drug makers that make asthma medication.
Dr. Bradley Chipps, an allergy specialist in Sacramento, Calif., said the research “gives us good information that what we’ve been doing doesn’t work.”
March 29th, 2009 at 4:55 pm
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