Inhalers Can Increase Chance of Asthma Attacks in Children

Genetic flaw makes children more susceptible to attacks if they use inhaler daily.

Asthma sufferers may be doing more harm than good by using their inhaler to try and prevent or relieve the symptoms of an asthma attack.

According to new research from Brighton and Sussex Medical School, hundreds of thousands of children who suffer from asthma receive no benefit from using their salbutamol inhaler because of a genetic mutation. The study showed that for these children, using their inhaler regularly for relief had a detrimental effect on their health, increasing the chances of an asthma attack.

The results indicated that 13 per cent of all children with asthma have a duplicate gene which makes them more susceptible to asthma attacks. Daily use of the “blue inhaler” salbutamol, also known by its brand name Ventolin, increased the chances of an asthma attack in these children by 30 per cent.

Although 100,000 children are particularly at risk because of a double gene mutation, some 400,000 children who have a single copy of the gene are also at an increased risk if they use their inhaler too much.

Dr Elaine Vickers from Asthma UK told the BBC: “It is well-established that over-use of some reliever inhalers can increase a person’s risk of having an asthma attack, although the precise reasons for this are still unclear.”

Dr Vickers recommended: “We would urge parents to keep track of how often their child uses their reliever inhalers and, if they use them more than three times a week, to take them to see their doctor or nurse to have their symptoms reviewed.”

Alternative inhaler medicines such as ipratropium work slightly differently to Ventolin and can be a more effective reliever for sufferers than increasing the amount of salbutamol used by the child.

By David Finklehorn posted October 7, 2009 3:46 AM