A large international study led by a McMaster researcher has found a patient-centric treatment that works for people with mild asthma.
People with mild asthma are often prescribed a daily treatment regimen, but up to 80 per cent do not follow the routine, using inhalers only when they have an asthma attack. Now the researchers have found an as-needed combined-drug inhaler is a viable treatment option.
Paul O’Byrne is the principal investigator on the study that suggests an inhaler with a combination of budesonide, a steroid that controls inflammation, and formoterol, a beta2-agonist that helps to open airways and make breathing easier, may be an alternative to conventional treatment strategies.
O’Byrne is a respirologist, a professor of medicine at McMaster University’s Michael G. DeGroote School of Medicine and a clinician scientist at the Firestone Institute for Respiratory Health at St. Joseph’s Healthcare Hamilton.
The results were published in the high-impact medical journal, The New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM). O’Byrne was also an author of a second NEJM article regarding mild asthma.
“Short-acting beta-agonists, also known as rescue inhalers, work quickly but they do not treat the underlying problem of inflammation,” said O’Byrne of the first study. “The secret in this new approach is that it not only relieves symptoms but at the same time delivers steroids required for overall control of asthma.”
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The New England Journal of Medicine. Study Paper:
