Some children afflicted with asthma may not be able to derive as many benefits as other children when it comes to treating asthma with steroids. This finding was disclosed by a new study presented at the American Thoracic Society.

Gregory Sawicki, M.D. of Children’s Hospital in Boston, disclosed that young children are not able to benefit from high doses of steroids in the same manner as adult patients.

From News-Medical.Net:

“The majority of children with mild asthma are less likely to have symptoms as they get older and may not need to be on daily steroids,” Dr. Sawicki said. “The flip side is that if a child has poor asthma control, the parents and doctor need to make sure the child is adhering to their inhaled steroid treatment. But variation in response to inhaled steroids, as other medications, is well described.”

The data comes from the Child Asthma Management Program Continuation Study (CAMPCS), one of the largest groups of children with mild to moderate asthma in the nation who have been followed over 10 years. “This study gives us a good sense of real-world practice in asthma management,” Dr. Sawicki says. “The children’s care is not directed by anyone in the study; it’s an observation of what goes on when the children’s care is directed by their own physicians.”

It was further remarked by Sawicki that not every child afflicted with asthma shows same response to treatment based on steroids as per the study results.