Hi, I'm new to healingwell.com. I was diagnosed with RA in March of 2006. I take both prednisone and plaquenil. I heard someone once say that prednisone is the drug one loves to hate. It really does wonders to control inflammation, but has nasty side effects when given in large doses and/or used for a long period of time. My first experience with prednisone was horrific (I was on 60mg per day, then on to 50, then 40). I didn't take it again until 3 months later. I had been hospitalized and basically was not given a choice. As you may already know, it is the most commonly prescribed drug to control inflammation. I have to say that it does work. Since February, I have gone from a maintenance dose of 10mg per day to 2.5mg every other day. My doctor finally agreed with me to start tapering me off the drug. This is my second bout at tapering. The first time I tried cutting back, the chronic cough came back with a vengeance (I have a chronic cough due to what has been described as a rheumatoid lung) and this time it's joint pains that have returned. I have to say overall that I have not had really bad side effect from the prednisone, except for when I was on the very high dosages I mentioned earlier. However, I recently had a bone scan in which they found some osteoporosis. So, you want to make sure that you follow your doctor's advice to take calcium and Vitamin D while you're on this drug. Re the plaquenil, from what I"ve read, it is one of, if not the, safest RA drug out there. I've been told that it takes several months to work, but to be honest with you I can't really tell if it's working or not. It does work differently from the prednisone as already stated, in that its purpose is to slow the progression of the disease; it does not help with inflammation.