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best way to wean off of predisone

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Crohn's Disease
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Posted 10/29/2007 3:50 AM (GMT 0)
Any tips for weaning off of predisone? I started at 40mgs. and I am down to 10mgs. My prescription has run out. I am ready to be off of this drug completely.Is there any harm in just stopping at this point. Any input is appreciated.
Posted 10/29/2007 4:24 AM (GMT 0)
did you go from 40mg to 10mg over night? Or have you tapered down to 10?

The best way to stop taking a steroid is to taper off of it. I wouldn't suggest just stopping the medication all together unless told otherwise by your doctor.
Posted 10/29/2007 10:24 AM (GMT 0)
You cannot stop prednisone like that.  It is very important to taper down the dosage very carefully, otherwise there is a greater chance your symptoms will return.  You must discuss this with your doctor.

Christina

Posted 10/29/2007 11:51 AM (GMT 0)
Hi Harley I did the taper half a pill at a time. If you go too fast it can cause side effects that might need you to restart them . Sometimes the adrenal glands need time to start working again so we taper slowly unless your DR. says otherwise because it matters how long you been on it. Hope you make out good with your taper.lol gail
Posted 10/29/2007 2:59 PM (GMT 0)

especially once you have gotten down to 20 after being on high doses you need to taper very slowly to let the adrenals get used to working again. the fastest you should go is 2.5 a week after 20 and sometimes by 1mg if you need to. i think the only time this doesnt apply is if you had a medrol (sp) dose pack or a short burst of prednisone, then you can come down faster. there is a lot of research on the net about this and there is a schedule that i am following that ill try to find the link and ill post it in there. but my GI is adamant about the going down by small increments, especially becasue i have been on it for 5 months or so.

bunny

Posted 10/29/2007 5:37 PM (GMT 0)

Congratulations on making it past 20 mg!! But that prescription needs to be refilled.

You are not quite out of the woods because at 5 mg and below it is especially tricky to try to go completely off pred.

If you just suddenly stopped the med, you could have a Crohn's flare or worse, a life threatening reaction to sudden steroid withdrawal.

Now is the time you need to be especially patient. If, after about 5 days of being on 10 mg pred, you can try dropping to 5 mg or to 7.5 mg.

It would be a shame to get this far in your taper, and then by rushing it, risk a serious set back and have to start all over again.

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