According to a new study presented at the American Thoracic Society, some children may face problems to control asthma when treated with inhaled corticosteroids, which is a mainstay of asthma treatment.

The study highlighted the fact that some asthmatic children may be genetically less responsive to steroids, as per researcher Gregory Sawicki, M.D. of Children’s Hospital in Boston.

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.”

Dr. Sawicki added that it has already been concluded in the past that even a rigorous use of inhaled steroids does not lead to well-controlled asthma in every adult.

This study is expected to provide a new dimensional approach before medical practitioners who have been treating their asthmatic patients on an ongoing basis without any positive results.