Two presentations last week at the American Thoracic Society 2007 International Conference in San Francisco included an additional year of information from previous research. The studies confirmed that youngsters given inhaled corticosteroids may do well while they're taking the medications. But the drugs' beneficial effects wear off soon after they're stopped, and they don't appear to have any long-term effects on the progression of asthmatic disease.

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"The good news is that you probably don't have to use steroids to prevent the progression of asthma, but inhaled corticosteroids do work when you need them," said one of the study's authors, Dr Wayne Morgan, a professor of paediatrics and physiology and chief of paediatric pulmonary medicine at the University of Arizona at Tucson. "Inhaled corticosteroids control, but don't prevent, asthma." – (HealthDayNews)

May 2007
 

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