Anyone experience bad fatigue and flares after stopping the use of prednisone?

[nettie4lyfe]

[nomoreheels]

I don't take prednisone but do take deflazacort which belongs to the same drug group, glucocorticoids. Yes & yes to both. Although we all react differently to meds, I have been on & off low dose DEFLA yearly for 6 years & each time experience both. I assume you tapered off them? This link may help you mayoclinic.org/prednisone-w...

[sylvi]

My dr wanted me off steroids and i got worse than i was on it. I ended back on it. So now i take 5mgs of it everyday and i look likely to be on it for the rest of my life unless they find something better.xxxx

[earthwitch]

Prednisolone really isn't a long term cure for inflammatory arthritis - its short term relief only, so its not surprising that you flare again when you stop it if you aren't taking other disease-controlling meds, or if your other meds haven't kicked in or aren't working properly. For me, it doesn't matter whether I taper slowly or not - once I get below about 10 mg a day, I might as well be swallowing sweeties. The only reason I would taper would be to avoid potential adrenal crisis from stopping too quickly if I had been on them more than a couple of weeks. The potential side effects of pred make it totally unsuitable as a long term med, so if you aren't getting relief from your other meds, make sure you let your rheumatologist know and ask what else you can try.