prednisolone

louiseb

BRIEFLY... Have had RA for 6 years, had left end of ulna removed 2 years ago, surgeon now wants to fuse wrist but I am a massage therapist(!) so any thoughts there would help. Reason I'm writing is because I've just been put on prednisolone and haven't started taking it as am really concerned by the side-effects mentioned in the leaflet.
Have been through the whole range of meds - nabumetone, celecoxib, sulphasalazine, methotrexate and leflunomide, as well as my daily coctail of diclofenac and painkillers. Most drugs worked for a while and then lost their effect. I was taken off methotrexate as it wiped out my wbc too much. I had weekly blood tests for 6 months until the wbc came back to a stable level. I then went onto leflunomide where the same thing happened earlier this year. I came off it and went back onto a half dose. I then began losing my hair and my wbc went too low again.
My consultant has just put me on 5mg prednisolone daily, with a view to reintroducing leflunomide in the future. I asked about weight gain and said I was concerned about that. His response was that in his opinion I am too thin anyway! Not that I'd asked what he thought of my figure anyway! I also asked about other side effects and he told me about osteoporosis and diabetes, etc. When I got the prescription, I read the leaflet and was extremely concerned to read about the mental health issues. The leaflet went on about this two or three times throughout the leaflet. Depression, anxiety, hallucinations, seeing and hearing things, suicidal thoughts, etc and this has really bothered me.
I have suffered from depression previously - I am fine now - and DON'T want to walk that road again. I am not medicated for it now, but still see my GP every month for a chat to monitor things. The leaflet also mentions to consult your GP before taking pred if you have an underactive thyroid gland, which I have and my cons didn't mention this either.
I am going to speak to the RA nurse as I haven't taken anything other than painkillers and NSAIDS for 3 weeks now and feel rough. Please can anyone give their experience of pred or thoughts on my situation? TAlso any thoughts on wrist fusion would be helpful too. Thanks so much

scattered

I've been on prednisolone since I was diagnosed nearly 3 years ago. I started at 20mg and now take 6mg daily. The dose your consultant has prescribed is a low matinance dose. Doses below 7.5mg do not usually carry the side-effects that the higher doses do. When I was on a higher dose I put on weight, but since being below 10mg it has dropped off again.

The chances of the steroids restarting your depression are minimal. They mostly have psychological side-effects on people who have previously psychotic illnesses or bipolar disorder. Having said that, I have psychotic depression and the prednisolone has not had any effect on my mental state.

For me the prednisolone helps keep my RA under control, along with a plethora of other meds. Have you ever had a steroid injection? Prednisolone is basically the oral version of those.

julies

Hi Louise
My 15 year old son has been on prednisolone for a year now and has no side effects at all.
Weight gain has not been a problem for him (he's 6 ft and weighs just over 9 stone).
He had a bone density scan done and although it was low it was still in normal limits.
Without the prednisolone he would not be very mobile.
Julie
ps He takes 10mg daily

livinglegend

louiseb wrote:

I've just been put on prednisolone and haven't started taking it as am really concerned by the side-effects mentioned in the leaflet.
I am going to speak to the RA nurse

I have been on prednisolone continously for 6 years without any side effects at all.

It is a good idea to talk to your RA nurse if you are worried. However, unless you start to take the pills, no-one can say what side effects, if any, you will have. If there are any, then quickly back to the GP for another consult.

One side effect from a list of 17 that was on my paperwork was; that you should not take prednisolone if you are currently unwell. If you were fit and well, you wouldn't need them anyway. As the Americans would put it, 'suppliers covering their ****, bigtime!'.

Joseph 8)

jimmy77

louiseb wrote:

BRIEFLY... Have had RA for 6 years, had left end of ulna removed 2 years ago, surgeon now wants to fuse wrist but I am a massage therapist(!) so any thoughts there would help. Reason I'm writing is because I've just been put on prednisolone and haven't started taking it as am really concerned by the side-effects mentioned in the leaflet.
Have been through the whole range of meds - nabumetone, celecoxib, sulphasalazine, methotrexate and leflunomide, as well as my daily coctail of diclofenac and painkillers. Most drugs worked for a while and then lost their effect. I was taken off methotrexate as it wiped out my wbc too much. I had weekly blood tests for 6 months until the wbc came back to a stable level. I then went onto leflunomide where the same thing happened earlier this year. I came off it and went back onto a half dose. I then began losing my hair and my wbc went too low again.
My consultant has just put me on 5mg prednisolone daily, with a view to reintroducing leflunomide in the future. I asked about weight gain and said I was concerned about that. His response was that in his opinion I am too thin anyway! Not that I'd asked what he thought of my figure anyway! I also asked about other side effects and he told me about osteoporosis and diabetes, etc. When I got the prescription, I read the leaflet and was extremely concerned to read about the mental health issues. The leaflet went on about this two or three times throughout the leaflet. Depression, anxiety, hallucinations, seeing and hearing things, suicidal thoughts, etc and this has really bothered me.
I have suffered from depression previously - I am fine now - and DON'T want to walk that road again. I am not medicated for it now, but still see my GP every month for a chat to monitor things. The leaflet also mentions to consult your GP before taking pred if you have an underactive thyroid gland, which I have and my cons didn't mention this either.
I am going to speak to the RA nurse as I haven't taken anything other than painkillers and NSAIDS for 3 weeks now and feel rough. Please can anyone give their experience of pred or thoughts on my situation? TAlso any thoughts on wrist fusion would be helpful too. Thanks so much

Hi,

Have been on and off prednisone for 20 yrs. for RA from 5mg to 40 mgs daily. All side effects are for real especially at the higher doses for long periods of time. I try to gradually taper down from the higher doses after a week or so to 5mg as soon as possible. The med works great and I have tried all the other stuff from dmards to mtx, gold, etc and what a waste of time. I have met some people that stayed on high does too long like for many months/years and it was not a good outcome.
Hope this helps.

jimmy77

tamnwill

All I can say i that it has saved my sanity(I'm 40)...... I have not had any obvious side effects and have to take when experiencing a flare up (up to 30mgs) and usually take 5mg daily. My Mum has been taking them for 35 years and yes she now has the moon face but they have saved her life. HTH ) x

jimmy77 wrote:

louiseb wrote:

BRIEFLY... Have had RA for 6 years, had left end of ulna removed 2 years ago, surgeon now wants to fuse wrist but I am a massage therapist(!) so any thoughts there would help. Reason I'm writing is because I've just been put on prednisolone and haven't started taking it as am really concerned by the side-effects mentioned in the leaflet.
Have been through the whole range of meds - nabumetone, celecoxib, sulphasalazine, methotrexate and leflunomide, as well as my daily coctail of diclofenac and painkillers. Most drugs worked for a while and then lost their effect. I was taken off methotrexate as it wiped out my wbc too much. I had weekly blood tests for 6 months until the wbc came back to a stable level. I then went onto leflunomide where the same thing happened earlier this year. I came off it and went back onto a half dose. I then began losing my hair and my wbc went too low again.
My consultant has just put me on 5mg prednisolone daily, with a view to reintroducing leflunomide in the future. I asked about weight gain and said I was concerned about that. His response was that in his opinion I am too thin anyway! Not that I'd asked what he thought of my figure anyway! I also asked about other side effects and he told me about osteoporosis and diabetes, etc. When I got the prescription, I read the leaflet and was extremely concerned to read about the mental health issues. The leaflet went on about this two or three times throughout the leaflet. Depression, anxiety, hallucinations, seeing and hearing things, suicidal thoughts, etc and this has really bothered me.
I have suffered from depression previously - I am fine now - and DON'T want to walk that road again. I am not medicated for it now, but still see my GP every month for a chat to monitor things. The leaflet also mentions to consult your GP before taking pred if you have an underactive thyroid gland, which I have and my cons didn't mention this either.
I am going to speak to the RA nurse as I haven't taken anything other than painkillers and NSAIDS for 3 weeks now and feel rough. Please can anyone give their experience of pred or thoughts on my situation? TAlso any thoughts on wrist fusion would be helpful too. Thanks so much

Hi,

Have been on and off prednisone for 20 yrs. for RA from 5mg to 40 mgs daily. All side effects are for real especially at the higher doses for long periods of time. I try to gradually taper down from the higher doses after a week or so to 5mg as soon as possible. The med works great and I have tried all the other stuff from dmards to mtx, gold, etc and what a waste of time. I have met some people that stayed on high does too long like for many months/years and it was not a good outcome.
Hope this helps.

jimmy77

woodbon

Hi,
If you read the leaflets that come with medication, they can really scare you, I know, cause thats what I do! But often the side effects mentioned often only apply to a tiny number of the totel who take the drug. These days manufacurers have to mention them all as they are liable to be sued if they don't. Its frightening, but thats the price we have to pay for the choice of being informed patients. Thats also way we have to sign consent for anathsetic. I'm going on a bit, but if you take them and don't find them helpful, you can stop - if you don't take them you'll never know if they could have helped a lot. I don't know if this helps, but I hope so. All the best Sue

jimmy77

louiseb wrote:

BRIEFLY... Have had RA for 6 years, had left end of ulna removed 2 years ago, surgeon now wants to fuse wrist but I am a massage therapist(!) so any thoughts there would help. Reason I'm writing is because I've just been put on prednisolone and haven't started taking it as am really concerned by the side-effects mentioned in the leaflet.
Have been through the whole range of meds - nabumetone, celecoxib, sulphasalazine, methotrexate and leflunomide, as well as my daily coctail of diclofenac and painkillers. Most drugs worked for a while and then lost their effect. I was taken off methotrexate as it wiped out my wbc too much. I had weekly blood tests for 6 months until the wbc came back to a stable level. I then went onto leflunomide where the same thing happened earlier this year. I came off it and went back onto a half dose. I then began losing my hair and my wbc went too low again
My consultant has just put me on 5mg prednisolone daily, with a view to reintroducing leflunomide in the future. I asked about weight gain and said I was concerned about that. His response was that in his opinion I am too thin anyway! Not that I'd asked what he thought of my figure anyway! I also asked about other side effects and he told me about osteoporosis and diabetes, etc. When I got the prescription, I read the leaflet and was extremely concerned to read about the mental health issues. The leaflet went on about this two or three times throughout the leaflet. Depression, anxiety, hallucinations, seeing and hearing things, suicidal thoughts, etc and this has really bothered me.
I have suffered from depression previously - I am fine now - and DON'T want to walk that road again. I am not medicated for it now, but still see my GP every month for a chat to monitor things. The leaflet also mentions to consult your GP before taking pred if you have an underactive thyroid gland, which I have and my cons didn't mention this either.
I am going to speak to the RA nurse as I haven't taken anything other than painkillers and NSAIDS for 3 weeks now and feel rough. Please can anyone give their experience of pred or thoughts on my situation? TAlso any thoughts on wrist fusion would be helpful too. Thanks so much

Hi,

Prednislone increases hormones like glutocortsoids that provide the pain relief. You would think by now since this is so effective in reducing pain due to swelling that a safer med. or natural homeopathic treatment would be developed to do the same by now, that could be used for long periods of time.
Probably the big drug companies would prefer to work on bio/tnf meds etc. and beyond because there is alot more money in it. If you see where mega-money gets sent to these hospitals that do clinical trials for new drugs on patients, it would seem that the Rheumies play a pitoval role also, in not getting to the bottom of this disease.

jimmy77