Methylprednisolone

[tiasbear]

I live in the States, and was wondering if anyone on here is on Medrol (methylprednisolone)? From what I understand it is prednisone but just works a little different in the body. My question is if anyone would know how to go about tapering on this drug because the smallest pill I can get is 4mg. So I find myself trying to cut it in 1/4ths and it just crumbles on me. Any ideas?

[piglette]

I take Rayos (prednisone) which is brilliant. It comes in 5mg, 2mg and 1mg tablets. 4mg of methylprednisone is equivalent to 5mg of Rayos. I believe you can get cutting devices for methylprednisone, try Amazon or maybe your pharmacist can help.

[Judyta]

I too live in States and I cut the 4 mg with a cutting device I purchased in pharmacy. Cutting down to 2 can be a bit messy but if you give it a quick "chop" it works!! Works well. Right now I'm down to 4 mg.

Still fighting the fatigue and weakness which no one seems to understand.

All the best.

[Peter55 in reply to Judyta]

I was on pred for 18 years at rising values until I was on 20mg a day. I avoided osteoporosis by exercising and taking alendronic acid and all recommended supplements. But I used to find if I tried to drop by 5mg I would be sleeping 12-16 hours a day and felt so achy and tired, all I wanted to do was stay in bed. No one could explain that either. I'm now off pred and on hydrocortisone at 30mg which is a much lower dose and HC doesn't stay in your bloodstream all day. I have pain problems from an underlying inflammatory condition. ( all bets on CFS) and I get what is called rebound neuropathy. My pain nerves have been under the control of pred for 18 years. Now they've been released, they have a habit of all fining at once which is total agony and I end up on morphine. So reducing steroids or coming of and going onto our natural hormone, cortisol which is metabolised from HC can cause problems. Steroids are very very powerful and can cause you problems. Especially when you withdraw. I'm now steroid dependent and will have to stay on HC for the rest of my life.

Good luck and I hope they find the reason. If they do can you let me know coz it's puzzled me for years. Unless you also have an underlying inflammatory condition like I do, and that could be the cause

Cheers

Pete

[PMRpro Ambassador]

healthunlocked.com/pmrgcauk...

You can use this to reduce in larger steps quite successfully for tablets that you struggle to cut. You can buy pill cutters which work better than a knife.

I was on methyl prednisolone - the methyl part of the molecule is meant to make it more effective. For me it just upped the side-effects which were fairly awful (massive weight gain, muscle wasting, a beard) and I had very little desired effect on the PMR. But that was me. It is the standard here in Italy and most people do fine I gather.

[Peter55]

Prednisolone is what your body metabolises prednisone into. So basically, apart from dose sizes they are very much the same