A recent study suggests that oral steroids can't play any effective role in treating chest infections in adults with no asthma. Steroids don't decrease the severity or duration of symptoms.
Researchers from universities of Oxford, Bristol, Southampton, and Nottingham performed a study regarding the effects of oral steroids in non-asthmatic adults. The researchers carried out the study in 398 adults who had acute chest infections, though they were not victims of asthma and pneumonia. Notably, all these persons didn't require any immediate treatment of antibiotic. The study was published in the popular journal JAMA.
The said 398 adults were randomly divided into two groups. Now, 198 adults of one group received 40mg of Prednisolone, the known oral steroid, for the five days. On the other hand, the rest 200 participants received one identical placebo for the same five days.
The research team observed no decrement of the cough's duration in patients who were given Prednisolone. The key symptom of the chest infection is a cough. The oral steroid could not even reduce the important accompanying symptoms' severity. The team observed the whole fact after the treatment between two to four days.
The researchers got the outcome after comparing the participants who received Prednisolone with the participants who received placebo. The results show that steroids don't play any effective role in treating chest infections in adults who are not the victims of asthma. Lead author of the study, Professor Alastair Hay, opined significantly about it. According to the news of the University of Bristol, Alastair Hay reported that chest infections are often treated with antibiotics improperly.
Notably, Alastair Hay is the Professor of Primary Care in the famous Bristol Medical School located in the famous University of Bristol. Without sufficient and proper evidence, increasing use of the corticosteroids, such as Prednisolone, is visible to decrease the chest infection symptoms. But, no clinically useful effect of steroids on the severity and duration of the symptom is evident. Therefore, continuous use of the steroids in the adults with no asthma is not supported by the recent study.
