GPs should not use steroids for treating acute lower respiratory tract infection in adults who do not have asthma or other chronic lung disease, UK researchers have said.
The study, published in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA), concluded that oral corticosteroids are not effective in the treatment of chest infections in non-asthmatic adult patients in primary care.
Researchers from the Universities of Bristol, Nottingham, Oxford and Southampton randomly tested 398 non-asthmatic adults presenting with acute chest infections but with no evidence of pneumonia and not requiring immediate antibiotic treatment.
One group of 198 participants received 40mg of the oral steroid ‘prednisolone’ for five days, and the other ‘control’ group of 200 participants received an identical placebo over the same time period.
The study, funded by the National Institute for Health Research School for Primary Care Research, found that there was no reduction in the duration of cough or the severity of the accompanying symptoms between two and four days after treatment in the prednisolone group compared with the placebo group.
Participants were selected from 54 practices in England and had a mean age of 47 years, while 63% were female and 17% smokers.
Alastair Hay, lead author of the study and a GP and professor of primary care at the University of Bristol Medical School, said: ‘Chest infections are one of the most common problems in primary care and often treated inappropriately with antibiotics.
‘Corticosteroids, like prednisolone, are increasingly being used to try to reduce the symptoms of chest infections, but without sufficient evidence.
‘Our study does not support the continued use of steroids as they do not have a clinically useful effect on symptom duration or severity. We would not recommend their use for this group of patients.’
Professor Mike Moore, study co-author and a GP and professor of primary health care research at the University of Southampton, added: ‘Oral and inhaled steroids are known to be highly effective in treating acute asthma as well as infective flares of other long-term lung conditions but need to be used carefully because of the risk of unwanted side effects.
‘We chose to test the effect of steroids for chest infections as some of the symptoms of chest infections, such as shortness of breath, wheeze and cough with phlegm, overlap with acute asthma. However, we have conclusively demonstrated they are not effective in this group of patients.’
Dr Andrew Green, clinical and policy prescribing lead at the GPC, said: ‘Oral steroids have significant and potentially serious side effects, and systemic infection is considered a contra-indication without simultaneous anti-infective therapy. I am therefore relieved that there has been no symptomatic benefit shown, as this will remove any potential pressure on GPs to prescribe contrary to established practice.
‘It should be noted that although no adverse consequences were found in this study, the sample size is too small to exclude serious but uncommon events.’
