Asthma Drugs: Serevent, Foradil, and Advair May Not Be Safe for Asthmatics, What??

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Asthma medications may not be safe for asthmatics?  What is this?  Well, the asthma medications marketed out there may may asthma worse, as in increasing deaths from asthma worse.  How does this type of thing happen?  Well, the researchers disagree, but

An author of a new industry-funded study on the safety of a commonly prescribed type of inhaled asthma drug says the findings should be “reassuring” to patients who use them. However, two researchers who have published studies of their own on the medications disagree.

The medications involved are called long-acting beta agonists, and they include Serevent (salmeterol, GlaxoSmithKline) and Foradil (formoterol, Schering). These drugs are also sold in combination with inhaled corticosteroids, such as Advair (salmeterol plus fluticasone, GlaxoSmithKline) and Symbicort (formoterol plus budesonide, AstraZeneca). They are used in the treatment of asthma, emphysema and chronic bronchitis.

Several studies have linked long-acting beta agonists to an increased risk of severe asthma attacks, hospital admission for asthma, and even deaths. Data suggest that African Americans may be more highly affected, both by asthma and by use of long-acting beta agonists than are Whites.

The drugs have always been dangerous, apparently, but someone hoped they would be less so with steroids included?  What is this, another example of our stellar FDA at work?  How is it that drugs prescribed for asthma are dangerous, but still prescribed, just with the hope that adding steroids will help reduce risks?

“It is clear” from her 2006 analysis of clinical trials, as well as other studies published since then, that such drugs are associated with increases in asthma hospitalizations, life-threatening exacerbations, and even deaths from asthma, Salpeter continued.

The real debate, Salpeter and Cates say, is not whether or not long-acting beta agonists are risky. Instead, today’s controversy revolves around whether their combination with inhaled corticosteroids eliminates their risk entirely. Recent information suggests that the combination is still more dangerous than corticosteroids alone.