Intranasal corticosteroids in allergic rhinitis

BMJ 1999;318:1350 ( 15 May )

Letters

Intranasal corticosteroids in allergic rhinitis

Paper did not include all data on adverse effects

Evidence of efficacy is useful but not only factor to be considered

Authors' reply

Paper did not include all data on adverse effects

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

EDITOR $---$ Weiner et al conclude that "results from [their] systematic review, together with data on safety and cost effectiveness,support the use of intranasal corticosteroids over oral antihistaminesas first line treatment for allergic rhinitis."¹ They alsostate that "intranasal corticosteroids are considered safe [and]studies have failed to show significant effects on serum markersof bone metabolism and short term bone growth," referring to twostudies, those by Martinati et al and Wolthers et al. They makeno reference to two more recent studies, both of a larger numberof subjects over longer periods, which established a significantreduction in paediatric bone growth. ² ³

The issue of adverse effects was also addressed in a report by the Committee on Safety of Medicines and Medicines ControlAgency, which concluded that intranasal corticosteroids can cause"clinically important systemic adverse effects at licensed doses."⁴ The United Kingdom datasheet for Beconase aqueous nasal . . . [Full text of this article]

CiteULike

Complore

Connotea

Del.icio.us Add to Digg

Digg

StumbleUpon Add to Technorati

Technorati What's this?

Relevant Articles

Intranasal corticosteroids versus oral H₁ receptor antagonists in allergic rhinitis: systematic review of randomised controlled trials: John M Weiner, Michael J Abramson, and Robert M Puy
BMJ 1998 317: 1624-1629. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

Lesson of the week: Childhood Cushing's syndrome induced by betamethasone nose drops, and repeat prescriptions: C A Findlay, J F Macdonald, A M Wallace, N Geddes, and M D C Donaldson
BMJ 1998 317: 739-740. [Extract] [Full Text] [PDF]