[The use of long-term steroid therapy in rural practice].

About 25% of steroid-dependent asthmatic patients are treated repeatedly with intramuscular depot corticosteroids by their family doctors. The results of a questionnaire circulated amongst general practitioners in a rural area of Switzerland revealed that 57% of these doctors occasionally or habitually prescribe depot corticosteroids to patients with severe asthma. Only a small percentage of general practitioners realize that depot corticosteroids arrest adrenal function for several days or weeks. The long-term ineffectiveness of depot corticosteroids against asthma and their increased side effects are not universally known.