Jump to content

Predisone and wondering if helps


Leanne
 Share

Recommended Posts

In short,

 

High dose prednisone 60-100 mg a day for 2-4 weeks can help especially in an episodic situation while other modalities kick in.  It can also help with getting some sleep if one gets strung out on nocturnal attacks.  Many docs prescribe a dose pack which is a burst dose with quick taper commonly used for back pain.  This may have short term help but its not enough for cluster headache in most cases.

Of course there are costs with the benefits.  Prolonged steroid use can suppress the adrenal glands and it might be a struggle to get them back in sync.  The more feared side effect is aseptic necrosis of the hip.  This is a situation where the blood supply to the hip joint is occluded with small fat emboli and the bone dies and the joint needs replacement.  Unfortunately this situation is not dose dependent and unpredictable when it might occur.  On the flip side many many folks need steroids for a variety of conditions and tolerate them just fine.   Long term steroid use can cause other issues so its not practical in our situation. 

The most common side effect is agitation and short temper especially during withdrawal.

  • Like 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 2 weeks later...

There are two different versions, prednisone and prednisolone. the first is metabolised in the liver to prednisolone. Have taken it multiple times during my cycles but has had not the anticipated effect on me, that is breaking the cycle. With me it only stabilised the number of attacks on a lower number...4 instead of 7 or more when I took it in the high dose period. During the tapering of the number of attacks rose again. However, other people do have the positive results of prednisolone. Pls note that taking predni increases your appetite hugely, so you might gain some weight.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

Loading...
 Share

×
×
  • Create New...