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The distribution of responses in study populations provides a novel method of comparing the benefit of two treatments. This 6-week, randomised, placebocontrolled, double-blind study compared the effectiveness of oral montelukast with inhaled beclomethasone in chronic asthma by assessing the distribution and overlap of patient responses to therapy, as measured by a clinical outcome (asthma control days).A total of 730 adult patients with asthma, age 15-65 yrs, with a forced expiratory volume in one second (FEV1) at baseline of 50-85% of predicted and o15% improvement in FEV1 after inhaled b-agonist were enrolled. After a 2-week placebo run-in period, patients were randomly allocated to receive montelukast (10 mg once daily), inhaled beclomethasone (200 mg twice daily) or placebo. The primary end-point (per cent of asthma control days) was compared between treatments as the overlap in the response distributions.The overlap of the distribution of responses between the montelukast and beclomethasone groups was 89% for per cent asthma control days and 96% for change from baseline in FEV1. The mean (¡SD) per cent asthma control days in the montelukast and beclomethasone groups was significantly higher than that in the placebo group (placebo 40.0 ¡ 35.8, montelukast 50.7 ¡ 37.1, beclomethasone 57.9 ¡ 36.1). The mean differences between montelukast and placebo, beclomethasone and placebo, and montelukast and beclomethasone were significant. The mean per cent change (¡SD) from baseline in FEV1 was 12.1¡18.7 and 13.9¡20.8 in the montelukast and beclomethasone groups, respectively, and significantly greater than that in the placebo group (6.4¡20.1); there was no significant difference between the montelukast and beclomethasone groups in mean values or response distribution. There was also no difference among treatment groups in the frequency of adverse experiences.A comparison of the response distribution is an important approach to comparing therapies; montelukast and beclomethasone provided similar response distributions for the end-point of per cent asthma control days over a 6-week treatment period. Eur Respir J 2003; 21: 123-128

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