Reports From the Field: NAEPP releases updated asthma guidelines
Updated asthma guidelines now recommend inhaled corticosteroids as safe, effective, and preferred first-line therapy for children and adults with persistent asthma.
The National Asthma Education and Prevention Program (NAEPP), which released the new guidelines in June, continues to recommend a "step-wise" approach to asthma management based on severity but modifies the treatment recommendation at each step to reflect research over the past five years.
The NAEPP is coordinated by the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI) of the National Institutes of Health.
The updated guidelines stress that inhaled corticosteroids are preferred for controlling and preventing asthma symptoms and for improving lung function and quality of life. The updates include data from clinical trials that show that the potential risk of a delay in growth due to inhaled corticosteroids is temporary and possibly reversible.
The guidelines include a reaffirmation that antibiotics should not be used to treat acute asthma attacks except when there is a bacterial infection due to another conclusion and a review of the benefits of written action plans for self-management of asthma.
For more information, see the NHLBI web site: www.nhlbi.nih.gov.
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