@Jollyrogers - INHALED steroids are a LOT less-dangerous generally because their action is concentrated in the lungs. Budesonide in particular (brand name in the US is "Pulmicort") is used as a maintenance drug by A LOT of asthmatics; it's not a "novel" drug by any means and there's a hell of a lot of data on its risks when used on a chronic basis. The biggest one is cataracts. On an acute basis that's a non-issue, obviously but its a real factor for asthmatics who use it daily for years.

It has very low (but not zero!) systemic cross-over which is of course VERY different from any oral steroid (e.g. prednisone) which BY DEFINITION is systemic. Oral (or IV for that matter) corticosteroids are SERIOUS, hard-core drugs with a whole list of NASTY systemic side effects and extreme attention has to be paid if you're using, including tapering off them if you start using them for some condition and then want to stop. Those ABSOLUTELY require medical monitoring you cannot guess at without lab access.

----------