brain fog? pmr or pred?

[howtotaperdown]

about the brain fog which seems a PMR symptom...mine seems much worse after morning pred, is this common? what do others feel? makes me wonder if it is the illness or the cure...

thanks

[DorsetLady PMRGCAuk volunteer]

Bit of both probably -this was on another forum a few years ago but might help -

lupusuk.org.uk/coping-with-...

[SnazzyD]

Could be both. I have to say, after an hour or two of uncoated Pred, I felt distinctly squiffy. When I was on coated Pred it was 4/5 hours after. On high doses it was so bad I took it before bed to avoid having try and function through the weird wobblies.

[PMRpro Ambassador]

Several people I know found pred had unpleasant effects and brain fog was one of them. One lady's GP wondered about taking it before bed - which worked brilliantly as she slept through it and he announced he would note it for future reference.

[Longtimer in reply to PMRpro]

I have never taken pred before bed, but have often wondered about it....I have brain fog nearly all the time, and fatigue......I'm at 4.5mg......adrenal reading is 215, would it make any difference to that do you think?

I have over the years a couple of times been asked....why dose PMR present itself later in life..(over 50)..when Fibro appears at any age....to that I reply they are two diffetent di seases.......any ideas on that?

[PMRpro Ambassador in reply to Longtimer]

You told them! And you could try - QOL is all so anything that improves it is worth trying. Try and take it close to midnight so the adrenals still have a chance of waking up though.

[Longtimer in reply to PMRpro]

Will do thank you....

[Gimme]

I would say that both cause it and I am talking only from my own perspective here, but it feels different to me. The brain fog from PMR feels more like the kind of fog you get when you are extremely tired. The pred puts me in a permanent state of flight or fight at anything over about 6mg and it feels much more like what happens in your brain when you are stressed and get triggered. When you get a scare, the amygdala fires off and the frontal cortex closes off temporarily, that's the bit of the brain that does your rational thinking. Certainly, when I was on a higher dose of pred, it felt like my brain kept timing out, a bit like the sensation you get when you are reading a book and you lose where you are on the page. The rest of the time, I just feel dull and a bit slow. That's the thing that I hate most about all this, the effect that it has had on my brain. No wonder I had problems doing my job before I stopped working.