According to a study by scientists from the UT Southwestern Medical Center, treating pneumonia patients with steroids and antibiotics is far better than treating them with antibiotics alone.

This study also suggested that the use of steroids is an effective option for treatment of inflammation in the lungs of a pneumonia patient. The study was headed by Dr. Robert Hardy, Study’s Senior Author & Associate Professor of Internal Medicine and Pediatrics.

From News-medical.net:

Adding corticosteroids to traditional antimicrobial therapy might help people with pneumonia recover more quickly than with antibiotics alone, UT Southwestern Medical Center scientists have found.

Unlike the anabolic steroids used to bulk up muscle, corticosteroids are often used to treat inflammation related to infectious diseases, such as bacterial meningitis. Used against other infectious diseases, however, steroid therapy has been shown to be ineffective or even harmful.

In a study available online and in a future issue of the Journal of Infectious Diseases, researchers at UT Southwestern show that mice infected with a type of severe bacterial pneumonia and subsequently treated with steroids and antibiotics recovered faster and had far less inflammation in their lungs than mice treated with antibiotics alone.

The study also remarked that a combination of antibiotics and steroids can be considered as one of the best treatment options available in present day times for treating patients during asthma (M pneumoniae infection) attack. It was also said that while antibiotics are good for killing the bug, steroids play an important role by treating inflammation in the lungs.

The findings of this study were supported by the National Institutes of Health.

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