Do Inhaled Steroids Raise Pneumonia Risk in Asthma Patients?

Excess risk for pneumonia has been observed among recipients of inhaled corticosteroids in some randomized trials of patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). But does this observation apply to asthma patients? To find out, researchers reviewed data from industry-sponsored randomized asthma trials that involved inhaled budesonide; the manufacturer also sponsored this analysis.

In trials that involved 15,000 children and adults with asthma, no excess risk for pneumonia was observed among recipients of inhaled budesonide compared with recipients of placebo or drugs other than inhaled steroids. In other studies in which two different doses of budesonide were compared, the incidence of pneumonia was similar with high and low do…