Fast Fact: How Safe are Inhal... Video Transcript

Participants

, Nancy Ostrom MD, Gabrielle Morris MD

Summary

Listen to asthma specialist Dr. Nancy Ostrom discuss the use of inhaled steroids in children with asthma.

Webcast Transcript

When we're discussing treatment with patients, especially with parents, and they heard the word "steroid," even though it's "corticosteroid," there's sometimes a concept that we call steroid phobia. They've heard bad things about it. They heard that Olympic runners have taken it and hurt their livers. They've heard that there's a grandma or an aunt that's taken high doses of oral corticosteroid and had thinning of the bones; these kinds of things.

But when we get to really discussing a treatment plan for the vast majority of patients and kids with asthma, we're using moderate doses of inhaled corticosteroids that don't have the same systemic exposure, as we call it, and therefore have far less risk than these other oral corticosteroids.

We also have to discuss the risk of not using the steroids or using too low a dose. And again, that could be the risk of uncontrolled asthma symptoms as well as worsening of lung function or the airway's function over time. So when we discuss that in a rational way with questions and answers, generally parents and patients will understand that these treatments are actually going to be helpful to both their quality of life and their actual health of their airways.

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