OCS Overuse

Oral corticosteroids (OCS) are used to control severe symptoms that are not controlled with other, mostly inhaled medicines. The corticosteroids come in pill form and are usually used for short periods of time in special circumstances, such as when your symptoms are getting worse. But sometimes oral corticosteroids are used over longer periods of time, which can then increase the risk of a number of side effects. These effects are well known including osteoporosis (bone-thinning), diabetes (uncontrolled sugar), and cardiovascular disease (injury to the heart and blood vessels).¹ Your physician will work to keep you off of long-term oral corticosteroids and may need to refer you to a specialist or an asthma clinic if you are on OCS for a number of months.

One option that may help to reduce your OCS usage is using add-on therapy in the form of a biologic medicine. These medicines have been proven to help patients with moderate-to-severe asthma not only reduce their dose of oral corticosteroids, but actually stop taking them.³ Once stopped, the side effect risks from OCS are reduced significantly and may be found over time to be negligible.³

References

Global Initiative for Asthma. Global Strategy for Asthma Management and Prevention, 2023. Updated July, 2023. ginasthma.org
Bourdin A, et al. Eur Respir Rev. 2020;29:190085.
Global Initiative for Asthma. Difficult-To-Treat & Severe Asthma in Adolescent and Adult Patients, 2023. ginasthma.org

All URLs accessed 9/6/2024.