Pressure on top of Head

[Ronswife]

With PMR as the diagnosis I am down to 7 and a half mg of Prednisoline and I almost always feel this pressure from my forehead up to the top of my head. It has been ongoing at 10 or so too. Seems to be there when I wake all day. No eye problems. Less hair loss now but less hair to lose! Does anyone experience this too? And are we more apt to become victims of Altzeimers as we age if we have an inflammation in our heads?

[PMRpro Ambassador]

There is one form of dementia which is associated with cerebral vasculitis - but it isn't the same as GCA, GCA is much more specific in some ways.

The abstract for this paper ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/233...

says GCA patients infrequently develop GCA - which is a fancy way of saying it happens but is unusual. However, they say that GCA can be the cause of something called multi-infarct dementia during periods of activity of the GCA but, unlike other forms of dementia, it can be treated with higher doses of pred. So if a GCA patient develops sudden episodes of confusion a higher pred dose may be needed even if other GCA symptoms are not obvious.

[Ronswife in reply to PMRpro]

I have only PMR. Is this normal pain. I keep telling my RA.

[PMRpro Ambassador in reply to Ronswife]

I've never heard anyone complain of anything like that before.

[Avrael]

I think I may have experienced something similar when starting to reduce preds from 4mg to 3mg. I remember saying to a friend that I felt a tightness in my head and it was across the front and top. It has gone now so I assume it was due to the reduction. I also reasoned that preds relax the muscles so a reduction may have the opposite affect.

I also feel less confused and more able to gather my thoughts, since getting down to 3mg. I used to say I had dyslectic thinking because I struggled to get my thoughts together. Im still a little slow at times but I put that down to my age or tiredness.

[PMRpro Ambassador in reply to Avrael]

My fingers sometimes develop dyslexic spelling! I've been typing pretty accurately for many years - and if I have a flare suddenly certain pairs of letters come out the wrong way round!

[Avrael in reply to PMRpro]

I know what you mean, my fingers don't always spell right.

[Ronswife]

That sounds like me and is reassuring. Thank you both.