Ask Lemmy

Inhaled meds work almost instantly, 99% of oral meds take up to an hour to even hit the bloodstream, often more to hit peak blood concentration. If inhaled meds aren't working you don't have time for an oral med to work; at that point you're tubing the person.

A corticosteroid also has way too many side effects to be taken long term, like another user said. Long term you're talking one of the more targeted immune modifying drugs like singulair.

Now what you would still use a corticosteroid for is an acute exacerbation that's not an emergency. So like, pneumonia where you've got the person on a shitton of antibiotics and you need their inflammation to sit down and shut up for a second while they work. So their throat hasn't actually started closing up yet but it might try if you don't use the steroid.

Hope this helps.

(I do see some people saying best practice is shifting away from this; I work psychiatry so our patients aren't always getting top of the line care. I take whatever bones the hospitalist deigns to throw us, LOL)

it's an emergency treatment when you're so unable to breath even a nebulizer won't help. it is not a valid alternative to inhaled steroids because it fucks with your entire endocrine system and can lead to long term heart, lung, kidney, and nervous disorders

Long term side effects of oral pred can get pretty nasty

Yeeeah, I have an autoimmune disease (in the rheumatoid arthritis family, currently diagnosed as psoriasis) where steroids are the first-line treatment, and medical professionals don’t even recommend using topical steroids every day (which have localized effects like an inhaler), let alone oral steroids affecting your entire system.

I get the frustration, I freaking hate applying topical meds and would gladly take a pill once or twice a day instead, but the side effects would be way worse than my current symptoms if I did : (

I'm not familiar with treating asthma in humans, but I have a severely asthmatic cat. The prednisolone is not the preferred treatment, it is used to manage flareups that can't be controlled with inhaled steroids. The inhaler is preferred because the steroids are localized to the lungs only and have fewer side effects compared to the prednisolone which affects the entire body and is more problematic long term.

TLDR: If you were my cat you'd be getting an inhaler and prednisolone only when necessary

I would imagine it’s an emergency basis.

Typical line of treatment goes:

1. Emergency inhaler as needed (albuterol/Ventolin/ProAir) for mild asthma

2. Maintenance inhaler (daily inhaled steroid) for moderate asthma

3. Maintenance tablet (Singulair/montelukast) for moderate asthma with allergies

4. Nebulizer treatments of 30ish min albuterol concentrate for bad flare ups/bad chronic asthma

5. Short term steroid treatments for pneumonia/emergency applications

6. Oxygen tanks for COPD/bad emergency ER trips, usually by ambulance

Buuut that’s experience in the US with asthma. Other places in the world may differ.