African Americans Needed For Study Of Asthma Medications

Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis needs African Americans with asthma to enroll in a study evaluating different treatments.

Previous research suggests that some medications may not work as well for blacks as for whites.

Dr. Leonard Bacharier is the lead pediatric researcher for the study at Washington University. He said even though there’s evidence that African Americans may respond differently to some medications, drug trials typically group people of all races together to come up with an average result.

“We say that if drug A is better than drug B, we should use drug A for everybody,” Bacharier said. “But in reality, drug A may be the best drug for Caucasians. Drug B may be the best drug for African Americans.”

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