Thorax has featured an editorial which discusses the evidence for and against intermittent therapy over maintenance inhaled corticosteroids in children and adolescents with mild persistent asthma.

The author concludes that there is insufficient evidence to recommend intermittent therapy in patients with persistent asthma. Half of the published trials testing intermittent versus low-dose continuous inhaled corticosteroids confirmed the superiority of daily low-dose, over intermittent, inhaled corticosteroids, and the latter over placebo.

Until more data become available, the author argues that the best approach for children with mild persistent asthma remains inhaled corticosteroids at the lowest effective dose, using the safest molecules.