reducing pred and anxiety

[More-physio]

Hi,

Just wanted to check if anxiety is a common symptom when reducing prednisone.

recently reduced from 5mg to 4mg .

Thanks in advance for replies

[piglette]

Steroids have been linked to a variety of mental health problems, such as anxiety, depression, and psychosis, although this is normally at higher doses. Also your adrenal glands are now waking up and this can have a variety of problems including psychosis, depression, anxiety, mania, and cognitive impairment.

[DorsetLady PMRGCAuk volunteer]

Anxiety can be a side effect of the meds, but if it were that would have expected you to suffer it on higher doses.

However, it is also a sign of adrenals stuttering, so as much due to that at your present dose. Have a look at this -

healthunlocked.com/pmrgcauk...

.. and reduce more slowly - only 0.5mg a time and using one of these plans - helps both adrenals and PMR -

healthunlocked.com/pmrgcauk...

healthunlocked.com/pmrgcauk...

[More-physio in reply to DorsetLady]

Thanks for all the info.

[PMRpro Ambassador]

It is at that sort of level where you are getting back to needing in-house production of cortisol to replace the pred you are reducing. Poor adrenal function can trigger anxiety - at higher doses of pred you can blame pred, at lower doses it is LACK of pred. Can't win!

[SnazzyD]

Before my adrenal glands got up to speed, reducing under 8mg caused anxiety and a short fuse, a bit like on much higher doses before they went down. Try 0.5mg drops

[Viveka]

If people get anxiety, fear, anger or depression in situations where they normally wouldn't, at low doses it is more than likely adrenals. I find the 'weepy, wobbly, grr' moods come and go.