Prednisone Taper

[Joy713]

Hi! I hope everyone is doing well!I am currently down to 5 mg and am having difficulty tapering down to 4 mg. I want to try the slow taper you all have talked about and wanted to ask If anyone has any advice for me?

At 5mg, do I alternate the 5mg with 4 mg or do I alternate the 5mg with 4 1/2 mg.?

I am basically asking, should I reduce 1mg or

1/2 mg each reduction cycle?

Thank you so much for your time!

Joy

[SheffieldJane]

I think half a mg because the last bit needs to give your Adrenals a chance to recover enough. I didn’t alternate. I did the lower dose once a week, then twice, then three times until the whole week was the lower dose. I gave myself some breathing days then started again down another half mg.

[Joy713 in reply to SheffieldJane]

Thank you so much for your response!

How many weeks did it take to go down 1/2mg and how long did you stay there before trying to go down again?

[Theziggy]

Maybe find some suitable tapering plans here steroidtaper.azurewebsites....

Good luck

[Joy713 in reply to Theziggy]

Thank you so much!

[PMRpro Ambassador]

A basic rule is that no reduction step should be more than 10% of the current dose - so by now 1/2mg is preferable. However, the slowed taper approaches also help a bit with the step being bigger.

There are links to the various plans with explanations here:

healthunlocked.com/pmrgcauk...

[Joy713 in reply to PMRpro]

Thank you so much!

[DorsetLady PMRGCAuk volunteer]

Half a mg a time - and another version(s)

healthunlocked.com/pmrgcauk...

[Joy713 in reply to DorsetLady]

Thank you so much!

[Theziggy]

steroidtaper.azurewebsites....