Methylprednisolone and prednisolone

[TinyBronko]

Do both come in pill form?

What is the major difference?

Having some confusion between my Dr and the pharmacist

[radd]

TinyBronko,

Both come in pill form, & the methylated version comes in injection as well.

To work prednisone has to be metabolised to its active form that is called prednisolone which can also be called methylprednisolone. Think of the methylated version of VitB12 & methyl- folate that many members use.

When these meds/sups come in their methyl forms they are stronger because are ready for use in that the body doesn’t have to convert them through another process to utilise. Because prednisone is so potent this makes that small difference in conversion much larger in that prednisolone is much more potent than prednisone in methyl pill form.

[humanbean]

Sorry, I can't help you with the answer, but I can link you to the information in the British National Formulary (BNF) which may help you to decide. This gives you information on drugs that doctors in the NHS can prescribe and it may answer your questions.

I've also linked to the Electronic Medicines Compendium (emc) which contains Patient Information Leaflets (PILs) and Summaries of Product Characteristics (SmPC) for many drugs prescribed by the NHS.

Prednisolone

bnf.nice.org.uk/drugs/predn...

bnf.nice.org.uk/drugs/predn...

medicines.org.uk/emc/search...

Methylprednisolone

bnf.nice.org.uk/drugs/methy...

bnf.nice.org.uk/drugs/methy...

medicines.org.uk/emc/search...

[humanbean in reply to humanbean]

Oh, I've just noticed you are in the United States, so I'm not sure if you can read those links I've given in my previous reply.

Prednisolone

drugs.com/prednisolone.html

drugs.com/pro/prednisolone-...

drugs.com/cdi/prednisolone-...

Methylprednisolone

drugs.com/methylprednisolon...

drugs.com/pro/methylprednis...

drugs.com/cdi/methylprednis...

For more info on prednisolone and methylprednisolone, search this website from the US National Library of Medicine:

dailymed.nlm.nih.gov/dailym...

Note that it contains information on human and animal drugs, so be careful with your search criteria.

[TinyBronko]

Hmm. Ok, my Dr wanted to try a trial run of Prednisolone for low cortisol.Since I don’t tolerate hydrocortisone well.

He wanted me to take 5 mg of Prednisolone

My pharmacy said that they only have Prednisolone in liquid form. That my Dr must’ve meant methyprednisolone

My Dr seemed confused, and thought that it must be on back order.

Now he doesn’t want me on methyprednisolone for longer that 2 weeks at 2 mgs.

I don’t see how that will help, I was hoping to stay on Prednisolone long term