Adults as well as young asthmatic patients get better relief with corticosteroids than with cromolyn when it comes to breathing deeper and making lesser use of inhalers, as per a review of studies that were aimed at making comparisons between the two asthma treatment options.
James Guevara, M.D., of the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine and colleagues found out that asthmatic patients being administered with corticosteroids even scored better on lung function tests.
From News-Medical.Net:
“To our knowledge, this is the first systematic review comparing the effects of cromolyn to the gold standard, inhaled steroids,” Guevara said.
The review appears in the current issue of The Cochrane Library, a publication of The Cochrane Collaboration, an international organization that evaluates medical research. Systematic reviews draw evidence-based conclusions about medical practice after considering both the content and quality of existing medical trials on a topic.
The consensus still leaves room for cromolyn treatment, according to William Storms, M.D., an allergist at the University of Colorado Health Sciences Center and director of the William Storms Allergy Clinic in Colorado Springs.
“Any expert would agree that inhaled corticosteroids are preferred first-line therapy for treatment of persistent asthma, which requires daily therapy. But we also will agree with the NIH [National Institutes of Health] asthma guidelines, which state that cromolyn and other drugs are alternative therapies,” Storms said.
Cromolyn, or sodium cromoglycate, and inhaled corticosteroids both block the action of certain inflammatory cells in the lungs. Physicians recommend both types of medication for persistent asthma, but individual studies disagree about which type of medication works best, the reviewers found.
It was noted by Guevara and colleagues that superiority of corticosteroids over cromolyn was such, as suggested by experiments, that there is no need to warrant any future studies. The benefits of corticosteroids prevail over those accruing from cromolyn use, irrespective of the severity level of asthma.
