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Barts and The London School of Medicine and Dentistry recently announced that oral steroids are ineffective in treatment of virus-induced wheezing in preschool children. This new finding brings national guidelines for the treatment of viral-induced wheezing under cirle of questions and doubts.

The research was funded by a grant from Asthma UK and focused mainly on attacks of wheezing caused by viral infections in the upper respiratory tract. Wheezing is one of the common problems of preschool children, aged between ten months to six years, and is usually treated with a short course of prednisolone.

Medically, prednisolone is an oral steroid used for reducing inflammation in the airway and is given for treating attacks of allergic asthma in older children and adults. But, it has been found that wheezing in preschool children is caused mainly by viral colds and is very different from allergic asthma.

In the study, Professor Jonathan Grigg, a paediatrician at Barts, along with other examiners, studied a group of 700 children between the ages of 10 and 60 months. These children were presented in the hospitals because of wheezing attack by viral infection. Divided into two equal groups, half of them were treated with prednisolone and half with a placebo, and symptoms were monitored by health care professionals.

From Science Daily:

A new study from Barts and The London School of Medicine and Dentistry has found that a common treatment for wheezing in preschool children is no more effective than a placebo.

The findings, reported in the The New England Journal of Medicine, call into question national guidelines for the treatment of viral-induced wheezing.

Attacks of wheezing caused by viral infections in the upper respiratory tract are common in preschool children between the ages of ten months and six years. Preschool children who visit hospital with such symptoms are commonly treated with a short course of prednisolone - a steroid which is used to reduce inflammation in the airway and which is very effective in treating attacks of allergic asthma in older children and adults.

As result, the examiners found no noteworthy difference in the length of time the two groups spent in a hospital. The findings were consistent with a previous study conducted by the team in which the oral steroid was administered by parents in the home.

Professor Grigg explained that the result of this large trial suggested that prednisolone in form of oral pills should not be routinely given to preschool children.

Category: Anabolic Steroids | Tags: London Insituite of Cell and Molecular Science, oral steroid, prednisolone, wheezing