About prednisone and mood

Hi there,

I was at the asthma doctor's today, and asked her if there was anything I could do about my mood when I'm on prednisone, as it is quite obvious to my friends, and somewhat disturbing to me, the large mood swings it gives me. She said that I could try taking medrol (methylprednisone) istead of pred., as it supposedly has less side effects. I want to say I've taken it before, but it's been years. Has anyone ever had any experience in taking one over the other? In the bit of web searching I did (where I found very little info) one website said it was only available in pills in the US, but that it's given by IV in the UK. Any experience you have with this or anything related would be much appreciated.

It's just so nice to have found a group of people who know where I'm coming from!

Bee

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I have only taken the IV methylpred, not the oral type. Had many months of it at home via a picc line, when things were very bad. My oral absorption of pred is pretty rubbish, so had a tendency to end up on IV steroids, and have a sensitivity to one of the brands of IV hydrocortisone due to additives, so was advised to avoid IV hydrocort and to use methyl pred instead. However, I'm lucky in that I don't really suffer from mood swings or the other side effects you describe on normal pred, so am not sure if I'm going to be much help on your specific problem. I can say that I certainly didnt get any similar problems on the IV methylpred, just difficulty in sleeping when i was taking it several times a day. Not sure if i've helped all that much - sorry! best wishes, KSD

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Hi there,

Actually, that's really helpful. I'm actually in the middle of moving...sorry I didn't see this earlier. I was just relieved that my asthma doc. didn't think that the mood thing was weird, and was totally understanding about it. I don't have sensitivities to preservatives that I take, but I do to ones I put on my skin, and it's hard sometimes to tell what they're in.

I get trouble sleeping too. But in an odd way I'm sort of used to it.

Bee