To reduce the pain of a sore throat it is now said that steroids can quickly help it, results were found last week by Annals of Family medicine.
Investigators went through 8 randomized trials (controlled) on the use of the steroids to see the reaction of the sore throat pain in adults and children.
The outcome was that it took 4–11 hours after the steroids were taken for the pain to wear off and within 28 hours the pain had disappeared, but the patients were also taking anti-biotics at the same time.
The steroids have shown to work, but have not been recommended as the benefits of them have to be shown along side the possible side effects that they can have.
They said there was now a need for further research to assess the safety of steroids in patients with sore throat without giving antibiotics. Other research is also needed to look at the benefits of giving steroids in combination with over-the-counter pain relief.
