According to a research, steroid tablets are not effective for relieving pre-school children with symptoms of virus-induced wheezing.

This research was carried out by Dr Alan Smyth, Associate Professor and Reader in Child Health, and Terence Stephenson, Professor of Child Health, at The University of Nottingham in collaboration with Dr Monica Lakhanpaul, Senior Lecturer from the University of Leicester and Consultant Pediatrician in Children’s Community Health Service for Leicester, Leicestershire and Rutland and Professor Jonathan Grigg of Barts and the London School of Medicine and Dentistry.

From News-Medical.Net:

Dr Monica Lakhanpaul added: “A number of treatments are used in children without strong evidence. This study demonstrates the need for further research in children not only to help us to find out treatments that work but also those that do not work which will then open the way to new research. It is sometimes difficult to recruit children to research studies but this study has been strongly supported by the families and children in the East Midlands and will help us to move another step closer to helping those children who suffer from wheeze.”

Dr Mike Thomas, Chief Medical Advisor for Asthma UK, welcomed the study, which he said could have important implications for the medical community.

“Young children who only get wheezy when they have a cold or viral chest infection but can breathe normally at other times, are likely to grow-out of their tendency to wheeze by teenage years. It is important that we stop relying on a one-solution-fits-all which means that these young children are taking steroids unnecessarily, and to search for more effective treatments for these children,” he added.

This trial was funded by Asthma UK and was presented in the New England Journal of Medicine. The study definitively suggested that steroid tablets are not beneficial for helping these children.