PsA diagnose

[Seal49]

I'm told I have PsA now and not PMR. On prednisone and MTX. 20 mg methotrexate and reducing prednisone down to now 14 mgIs having PsA mean that what I read on this forum for PMR not meaningful? This forum is so informative.

[SheffieldJane]

It is a totally different condition. I am surprised that PMR was diagnosed. Do you still have the symptoms that indicate PMR ? This may be my lack of knowledge. You need a clarifying conversation with your doctor. Obviously managing long term Prednisone and tapering off it will be relevant and taking care of your Adrenals as you reduce. You could have both conditions. We all welcome you here. Find out a bit more perhaps. A number of us take Methotrexate too.

[PMRpro Ambassador]

Depends on what it is relevant to, The general information is relevant to ANY autoimmune disease - the lifestyle changes, fatigue, pacing, all that sort of thing. Tapering off pred - which I assume you will - is much the same except you are aiming to get off it once the MTX is working so the risk of flares is a bit different, But once you are below 10mg the problems of tapering and adrenal function returning are no different.

Unlike SJ, I'm not entirely surprised at the misdiagnosis - early spondylorthropathies can present looking just like PMR and with no distinguishing features that appear on imaging. There are some much more subtle differences but they tend to be things doctors don't ask about very often. And PsA is a very commonly mentioned inflammatory arthritis alongside PMR at diagnosis as a differential diagnosis. The rheumy I saw wanted it to be PsA not PMR simply because an aunt had had psoriasis - I'd never had any skin problems.

We don't chuck people off - there are a few with changed diagnoses who have remained because there isn't a forum entirely relevant to them and a lot of their questions get answered here. We don't have a similar level of knowledge about the spondyloarthropathies as we do about PMR and GCA but we are always here for a moan or a boost.