Little-used asthma pills are just as effective as conventional inhalers, and patients are more likely to use them regularly, new research finds.

In a study published in the New England Journal of Medicine, British researchers tested the real-world effectiveness of medications called leukotriene receptor antagonists, or LTRAs.

They tracked 650 patients with chronic asthma for two years and found that the tablets managed the disease as well as steroid inhalers. Patients taking the pills were also more likely to use their medications consistently.

LTRAs -- sold under such brand names as Accolate and Singulair -- have been on the market for about a decade. But they are not as widely used as inhalers, in part because some studies have found them to be less effective for patients with mild persistent asthma.

The two sub-studies used in this study looked at more real-world conditions, using all kinds of asthma patients ranging in age from 12 to 80, including those with other health conditions. The participants were also under the care of their usual physicians and were responsible for picking up their own medications and taking them as directed.

In one study, patients with chronic asthma were treated daily with an LTRA or an inhaled steroid. In the other, an LTRA or an inhaled long-acting bronchodilator (LABA) was added to treatment with an inhaled steroid.

All the asthma patients continued to use short-acting "rescue" inhalers to help them breathe when asthma attacks occurred.

In both trials, the LTRAs appeared to work as well as the inhaled treatments for preventing asthma symptoms. After two months, both groups in the studies showed similar improvements in a questionnaire measuring their quality of life.

Two years later, the results were also similar, though not quite equivalent, said the researchers.

Patients in the LTRA portions of both studies tended to be more compliant with their treatments. Rates of treatment adherence were 65 per cent and 74 per cent among patients who took the LTRA pills, compared to 41 per cent and 46 per cent among patients treated with the inhaled steroids.

In an accompanying commentary, Sven-Erik Dahlen and colleagues from the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm, who were not involved in the study, say the research sent "an important message."

"We think this alternative approach works in the real world setting primarily because it is easier to take a pill once or twice a day than to use an inhaler," they write.

More study is needed, say the researchers, who note that treatment options still should be decided on a patient-by-patient basis.

The two studies were largely funded by the U.K.'s National Health Service.

Merck & Co. and AstraZeneca provided some funding, but the researchers say the companies were not involved with the design or execution of the study or interpretation of the results.