Pred in liquid form (revisited)

[pjt50]

Just a follow-up to my post of a while ago...

Here in The Netherlands the pharmacist told me that prednisolone wasn't available in tablets of <5mg. Instead the internist prescribed 100ml of liquid, where 1ml contains 5mg. It came with a measuring device which wasn't much good for amounts <1ml. so the pharmacist gave me a better one.

A few observations after 4 weeks' use:

Pros:

(1) Good for splitting and/or tapering small doses, without having to split pills.

(2) Easy to measure any dose accurately, to ½ or even ¼ mg.

(3) Once opened it keeps for 6 months, so fewer prescriptions needed. (I can only get 3 months' supply of tablets at a time.)

Cons:

(1) A bit fiddly to use.

(2) Less portable.

(3) Cost: here it costs less than 5x as much as the equivalent amount in tablets (100x5mg.) – which are very cheap to start with - but that may because the price of medicines is tightly regulated.

In summary: worth considering if you have the option – particularly if you're on small doses & tapering.

A belated happy & healthy new year to all!

[PMRpro Ambassador]

If only! But in the UK the cost of liquid pred is approximately 30x that of tablets ...

[pjt50 in reply to PMRpro]

It's no wonder the NHS drugs bill is astronomical. (But that's a whole new discussion 😀.)

[PMRpro Ambassador in reply to pjt50]

Well no - they don't approve it being used unless essential BECAUSE of the high cost.

[jinasc in reply to PMRpro]

And we never seem to run out of pills. If there is a shortage of either 1, 25. or 5mg. It never happens at that same time. In the UK we do not have to pay for Health Insurance. I am sure they do pay insurance and the provision of services is private.

I only know this because of the link with the Marjike Foundation. I think you met Hans and Marietta at the launch.

[pjt50 in reply to jinasc]

Just to be clear, I'm not comparing the relative merits of the two health systems. Most of my life I've been treated by the NHS. My question was just how the differential can be x30 in the UK & x5 in the NL 😀.

[PMRpro Ambassador in reply to pjt50]

Better ask the purchasing departments ...

[jinasc in reply to pjt50]

I never thought you were, I just thought people might not know the difference.

[reds15 in reply to jinasc]

You lucky people,i live in crete,first diagnosed with pmr in june 2018,started with 20 Mg,slowly coming down,have a very good rheumatologist who studied in swedenhere we only have tablets,5Mg being the smallest,i am currently trying to get from 3.75 Mg to 2.5 Mg which is not too difficult to cut but if i can go lower it will be a problem cutting them accurately

[PMRpro Ambassador in reply to reds15]

Accuracy isn't that important - and it balances out over a few days anyway.