Steroids Blog

A recent study conducted in UK tested a new asthma management plan. Instead of the previously advised double dose of inhaled corticosteroids, the researchers increased the dosage of beclomethasone inhaler to a fourfold.

This study aims to find the best possible treatment in preventing asthma exacerbations. They observed asthma patients under maintenance of oral corticosteroids. They were then advised to adopt the quadruple dose. When the peak expiratory flow fell, dose was increased from 200 μg to 1000 μg from one to two days.

The study led to an amazing drop in the number of exacerbations needing oral corticosteroids in patients who used the active drug compared to patients who used placebo inhalers. This reduction showed as much as twenty-one percent lower than the usual fifty percent.

The study authors said that other small trials found no significant result if the drug is to be increased two-fold than if the drug is to be increased four-fold. Furthermore, according to the researchers in the American Journal of Respiratory and Clinical Care Medicine, the overall reduction in exacerbation proves to be an insignifcant result since some of the patients from the treatment group did not adopt the quadruple dose advice.

From 6 minutes:

In a studyinvolving 400 asthma patients, management plans were adopted that advised a quadrupling of the usual dose of 200 to 1000 µg of beclomethasone inhaler (or equivalent) when the peak expiratory flow fell by 15% on two consecutive days or by 30% on one day.This led to a marked reduction in the number of exacerbations needing oral corticosteroids (21% v 50%) in patients who used the active rather than placebo inhalers, the study authors say.

However, the overall reduction in exacerbations was not statistically significant because some patients did not adopt the quadrupling dose advice, say the researchers in the American Journal of Respiratory and Clinical Care Medicine (online 9 July).