Prednisone and Fatigue

It is my first week off of Prednisone after a 5 week period in which I started with two weeks at a 40 mg dose, then tapered off by 10 mg for three weeks. During the entire time I was on Prednisone, I experienced many unpleasant side effects (mostly painful edema of the lower legs and feet) but otherwise felt great (lots of energy and could eat anything).

However, since I have been off of it I have had very bad fatigue. I am so tired all the time! I can sleep for 8 hours and still feel exhausted. I work full time and it is very difficult to concentrate. I am at the point where I am drinking Red Bull to stay alert, however this makes me feel shaky and slightly nauseous. I don't generally have tons of energy, as I have had Ulcerative Colitis for over two years and have multiple allergies, etc. but I am only 21 years old and feel that this is not normal.

I have heard that the fatigue can be caused by the adrenal glands working overtime after the corticosteroid is out of the system, and I'm hoping this is the case!

Has anyone else experienced/heard of this happening or know a possible cause?

same thing happened to me when I decreased my dosage. It took some time but to get my energy back. Hang in there !

Thanks for all the replies! So helpful. I still have a lot of the swelling as well, which I really want gone! I am assuming that, like anything, it must take some time for the prednisone to get out of my system.

my husband MADE me walk and do light exercises when I came off my prednisone ... the first few times was sheer torture but I do believe the exercise ended up helping my fatigue because it helped me achieve a deeper, more restful sleep. It doesn't hurt to have a tub with jets in it to soak in after a tiring day!

Wow, five weeks of pred? Mine was more like 15. Two weeks of 40mg. Then taper down by 5mg per week until 20mg then taper by 2.5mg until nothing.

I am finding myself a little fatigued. I think the pred really did increase my energy. I really did like waking up early in the morning for instance. Mostly it was because I had to pee usually twice overnight....

The pred worked great for me BTW. This was my first time on it. I had been flaring for two years, and I'd say I'm 98% normal now.

My GI had me taper really fast and a lot of people on here disagreed with what he prescribed, but he hates pred, I wanted to avoid it (but had to give in to get out of the flare), and it worked! I took 40mg for five days, 30mg for five days, 20mg for five days, 15mg for a little over a week (waiting to see the GI to discuss what to do next), 10mg for a week, then 10mg every other day for about two weeks (waiting to get through a job interview before I quit completely). I didn't have any trouble at all, but then again, the only side effect I had was a tiny bit of moonface.

Im the same have been off pred a week now but feel so tired all the time and really achy still not sleeping well which does not help.

Your adrenal glands are weakened and trying to recover. The caffeine will actually beat them up more and make the recovery take longer, so use caffeine sparingly as you can and avoid it on weekends when you don't need it. I will probably take you 5+ weeks to fully recover.