The dreaded steroids
I’m an 81-year-old English woman living alone on the south coast of England and have been diagnosed with asthma for 20 years. I’m a non-smoker, an avid walker, and slim build. In England, the current treatment for asthma attacks is antibiotics and steroids. Alas, this is a double-edged sword. My asthma subsides but the steroids cause acute anxiety and depression where I’m feeling like a tightly coiled spring. After being treated in Holland with Dexamethasone, I find these steroids not as bad but I’m still very very tense. I often refuse antibiotics as I don’t have an infection. Can anyone help?
Hi CM5808, and thanks for sharing your brief medical history and current situation with the community here in the forums section.
It's understandable that a scheduled medication regimen of steroids and antibiotics might treat certain aspects of asthma but not necessarily all of them.
Generally speaking, an asthma episode triggered by an upper respiratory infection may respond to antibiotic therapy while the inflammation is treated with steroids. As you pointed out, a course of steroids is not without its complications.
The part of the medication regimen that is noticeably missing (from my perspective), would be metered dose inhalers. This approach usually includes a rescue MDI, and a maintenance MDI, often times an inhaled corticosteroid (ICS).
What do you think?
Leon (site moderator asthma.net)
