asthma

New As-Needed Therapy for Mild Asthma Outperforms Maintenance Therapy

As-needed budesonide/formoterol (BUD/FORM) improves symptom control and reduces exacerbation rates in individuals with mild asthma, compared with as-needed terbutaline and budesonide maintenance, according to a new study.

The results of the study were presented at the American Thoracic Society’s 2018 International Conference on May 20.

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“An alternative strategy is needed for mild asthma to provide symptom relief and address underlying inflammatory processes contributing to exacerbation risk,” the researchers write.

To investigate a new strategy, the researchers conducted the SYGMA 1 (Symbicort given as needed in mild asthma) study, which included 3836 participants aged 12 years or older and had mild asthma. Participants were randomly assigned to 1 of 3 groups:

  1. Twice-daily placebo plus as-needed terbutaline 0.5 mg (n = 1277),
  2. Twice-daily placebo plus as-needed BUD/FORM 200/6 µg (n = 1277), or
  3. Twice-daily budesonide 200 µg plus as-needed terbutaline (budesonide maintenance, n = 1282).

Over 52 weeks, the researchers tracked participants’ well-controlled asthma weeks, efficacy of BUD/FORM treatment, rate and time to first severe exacerbation, and change in Asthma Control Questionnaire 5 (ACQ-5) score.

After analyzing the data, the researchers found that as-needed BUD/FORM outperformed as-needed terbutaline and budesonide maintenance.

“In patients with mild asthma, as-needed BUD/FORM was superior to as-needed terbutaline for asthma symptom control and exacerbation reduction,” the researchers concluded. “It was comparable to budesonide maintenance for reducing exacerbation risk, at a substantially lower corticosteroid load and without requiring twice-daily maintenance treatment.

—Amanda Balbi

Reference:

O’Byrne P, FitzGerald M, Bateman ED, et al. Efficacy and safety of as-needed budesonide/formoterol in mild asthma. Paper presented at: ATS 2018 International Conference; May 18-23, 2018; San Diego, CA. http://www.abstractsonline.com/pp8/#!/4499/presentation/22016. Accessed May 1, 2018.

 

 

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