Even low-dose inhaled corticosteroid treatment for asthma can lead to adrenal suppression, finds a recent research by Dr Jessica A. Lasky-Su, an associate statistician with the Channing Division of Network Medicine at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, and colleagues. This could in turn cause fatigue, headache, abdominal pain, vomiting and psychiatric symptoms, according to this study, which was published in Nature Medicine. The research analysed 14,000 patients participating in four independent epidemiological studies to find that 17 steroid metabolites, including DHEA-S and cortisol, significantly reduced adrenal in individuals with prevalent asthma. The team also wrote that the effects were  dose-dependent, with significant reductions even at low doses and that average peak cortisol levels among patients on ICS did not reach the average lowest cortisol levels of other patients.