People suffering from sore throat due to colds and flu can now get an immediate relief from steroids. Based on the latest edition of the British Medical Journal (BMJ), a single dose of oral steroids can alleviate the pain being suffered by patients with severe sore throats. The research was conducted on 743 patients which includes 369 children. The group conducted 8 trials in analyzing the effectiveness of steroids to placebo in adults and children with severe sore throats.

Researcher Dr. Carl Heneghan said that people with severe sore throat, a single dose of an oral steroid is effective in relieving pain in 24 and 48 hours. Heneghan is the deputy director of the Centre for Evidence-Based Medicine at the University of Oxford in the UK. He stressed however that the treatment is not advised for a mild sore throat since it usually go away by itself. “If you turn up at your emergency department and you have really bad tonsillitis and you are in a lot of pain, an additional treatment is to take a single dose of a corticosteroid,” he said.

It was also noted in the research that oral steroids can reduce the time for about six hours in reducing the pain. Patients given with corticosteroids and antibiotics were 3 times more likely to report having no pain 24 hours after treatment compared with patients given antibiotics alone. The group also found out that the treatment using oral steroids were more effective on adults as compared to children.

The research team intimates that taking oral steroids may help reduce the intake of antibiotics but further studies should be conducted on this issue. Steroid works by reducing the inflammation and are commonly prescribed for conditions such as asthma and croup. As a pain reliever for sore throat, oral steroids could help reduce the need for antibiotics and prevent creating a more resistant bacteria as a result of too much antibiotics.

Assistant professor of otolaryngology at the University of Kansas Medical Center, Dr. Julie Wei cautioned patients that may rely solely on oral steroids in the treatment of severe sore throats. She agreed that oral steroids are really effective in relieving pain but they are not substitute for antibiotics which treat the infection not the pain. “The use of steroid should never be for the purpose of replacing antibiotics. Based on the current information, that is not the conclusion people should have,” she said.

Dr. Wei added that single-dose steroid use is already a common procedure. In her medical practice, all her pediatric patients undergoing tonsillectomy and adenoidectomy get a single dose intravenously at the time of surgery. According to her, steroids are the most potent anti-nausea and anti-vomiting medication available. It also helps in improving appetite and the condition of the patient. “Also, people in the emergency room or children admitted for throat abscess usually get a single dose of steroids if they are having severe pain or difficulty opening their mouth due to inflammation. We ENTs already recommend that commonly,” Dr. Wei added.

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