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Prdnisolone dosage reduction side affects

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Posted 7/12/2018 7:45 PM (GMT 0)
My mom is on prednisolone accompanies with other UC drugs , for past two month doctor started reducing the dosage from 32mg to now 8mg and will move to 4mg next week, but she is having issues like sleep disorder, pain in right side below chest , irregular urine urge and headache. She is not able to sleep.which worries me.kore. please suggest.

She is on mesalazine as well and she takes her regular hypertension and diabetes medicine. Can all this impact her liver.
Posted 7/12/2018 8:21 PM (GMT 0)
How long was she on prior to the taper? There are a whole host of withdrawal symptoms for steroids. Generally prednisone can cause insomnia while taking it but it's not listed as a withdrawal symptom. Headaches, body aches and joint pain are common symptoms. I have seen people post about urine issues including urinary infections or frequent urination.
Posted 7/12/2018 8:38 PM (GMT 0)
I've never heard of any medication helping with prednisone side effects. Call me skeptical.

Prednisone is synthetic Cortisol. Cortisol is a natural hormone our body uses to regulate our sleep cycle, cortisol is highest in the early am when we wake up and lowest when we go to bed and fall asleep. Cortisol is a mild pain reliever taking care of small aches and pains we'd other wise experience. While we're on high dosages of prednisone, our body ceases producing cortisol and the adrenals go to sleep. As we taper down pred, the adrenals should reawaken and resume cortisol production, if they do not then we experience withdrawal. So pred withdrawal symptoms are generally limited to aches/pains, and drowsiness/fatigue.

You can always consult with an endocrinologist-specialist doctor (specializing in hormones) if she continues to have troubles with the taper. Endocrinologists will say you should never experience withdrawal when a pred taper is done correctly (and most gasteroenteroligists are clueless with it).
Posted 7/12/2018 8:44 PM (GMT 0)
She is on them from april , for about a month she was on 32mg , then the Doctor reduced ot to 16 for 20 days and so on. she is on 8 now. What all has been said about withdrawal affects i find them in my mother , but if she goes on 4mg for 10 more days and then its stopped. How much time will this withdrawal affects take to settle down any rough idea.
Posted 7/12/2018 8:50 PM (GMT 0)
Also would like to know if any kind of sleepibg pill would be of any help, so that i can ask physician to prescribe one.
Posted 7/12/2018 8:50 PM (GMT 0)
You're at the mercy of her adrenal system awakening and returning to normal function. That could take days, could take a week, multiple weeks, or never occur at all without help from an Endocrinologist. Should the withdrawal not go away in 2-3 weeks then I would strongly urge you to schedule her to see an Endocrinologist for further testing. An Endocrinologist can test her current cortisol levels, help coax the adrenals back awake, and resolve any remaining withdrawl.
Posted 7/12/2018 8:59 PM (GMT 0)
Also would like to know if any kind of sleepibg pill would be of any help, so that i can ask physician to prescribe one.
Posted 7/12/2018 9:38 PM (GMT 0)
Ask her doctor about a sleeping aid suitable for her.
Posted 7/13/2018 2:55 PM (GMT 0)
There are prescription sleep aids that are intended for short term use. I was on Ambien for the insomnia caused by prednisone but I took it much longer than it should be taken and developed an addiction to it. It knocks you out but it also made me feel horribly groggy in the mornings.
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