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Children who use glucocorticoid inhalers to prevent asthma attacks may be shorter as adults, researchers said on Monday.

Previous studies have shown that the drugs slow growth rate, but most experts believe that growth returns to normal after the first few years of therapy. But the new study, published in The New England Journal of Medicine, found that the growth deficiency persists into adulthood.

Scientists randomly assigned 943 children ages 5 to 13 to take daily doses of budesonide, nedocromil or a placebo for four to six years. Budesonide is an inhaled glucocorticoid sold under the brand name Pulmicort; nedocromil is a nonsteroidal inhalant no longer available in the United States. All the children were also treated with albuterol, a bronchodilator, under the guidelines of the National Asthma Education and Prevention Program.

Several of the authors have received consulting fees from pharmaceutical companies.

By the age of 25, patients in the budenoside group were on average about half an inch shorter than those who took the placebo, and the higher the dose of the drug they took, the greater the decrease in adult height. The difference persisted after controlling for age, initial height, race or ethnicity, sex, duration and severity of asthma, and other factors. Nedocromil had no effect on stature.

“There are lots of studies that show the inhalant corticosteroids produce a decrease in growth in prepubertal children,” said the lead author, H. William Kelly, referring to the class of chemicals that includes glucocorticoids. “But we have the first long-term prospective study that shows that you don’t outgrow it.”

Should glucocorticoids be avoided? No, Dr. Kelly said. “Starting smaller, younger kids on lower doses may avoid much of the effect” on growth, he said. “They’re the most effective therapy in the treatment of childhood asthma, and currently the only therapy we know of that decreases the risk of dying.”