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Decreasing dosage brings on depressed mood....typical ?

Posted , 11 users are following.

rocketman42
rocketman42

Each time I try to reduce my prednisone dosage ( even with small 1/2 mg decreases) I feel my mood become depressed. Is this a typical side effect of the weaning process ?

0 likes, 18 replies

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  • karenjaninaz
    karenjaninaz rocketman42

    Posted

    I was wondering the same thing -especially around 10mg. I only reduce ~ 1/4mg every 3 weeks or so. I am on 10.5 and was diagnosed DEc 1 2015. Started at 15 and T back up a little in the interim. I am 741/2
    • diana21296
      diana21296 karenjaninaz

      Posted

      Do you cut 1mg with  a pill cutter and pick a quarter out of the pieces? I find the tablet tends to split up into bits.

       

    • karenjaninaz
      karenjaninaz diana21296

      Posted

      I break the 1mgm pill in half at that line in the middle then use a pill cutter to make quarters. They don't come out perfectly but it basically evens out.

    • diana21296
      diana21296 karenjaninaz

      Posted

      Guess it's a bit hit and miss but there is no other way for a quarter. Thanks.

    • linda17563
      linda17563 diana21296

      Posted

      So do I have that problem, wish I knew how people cut 1 mg successfully, even with the pill snipper!
  • EileenH
    EileenH rocketman42

    Posted

    It could be - do you reduce from every day one dose to every day the new dose overnight so to speak?

    Have you seen this?

    https://patient.info/forums/discuss/reducing-pred-dead-slow-and-nearly-stop-method-531439

    Some people are very sensitive to changes in dose - this has helped a lot of patients.

    • erika59785
      erika59785 EileenH

      Posted

      Just recently, I thought I could reduce 6 mg to 5 1/2 alternating each day.  Oh, no it did not work.  I felt the change in my body right away.  Increased back and shoulder pain.

      Now, I am a "good girl" and use your method ..... dead slow and nearly stop.  The only way to go.

      Thank you again for the reminder!

    • danielle62164
      danielle62164 erika59785

      Posted

      I add reduced to 0 ml for 1 month and i have to  start again

      I when up to 4ml but I think I'll have to try 5 because shoulders  arms legs hips every things is sore 😰

  • diana21296
    diana21296 rocketman42

    Posted

    I am reducing half mg every 4weeks and am on 13.5mg down from 30mg.  For the first 4 days I feel achy in shoulder muscles and feely very short tempered at home! The body then adjusts and I am then ok.  Try not to arrange anything that week. Saw rheumy recently and instead of half mg he suggested 1mg using DSNS method o achieve the same result. I was impressed he knew all about it!  But couldn't possibly imagine dropping by a mg even though it would be on only one day the first week so think I will stick with my current plan.  He said I can do it whichever way suits me best. 

    • EileenH
      EileenH diana21296

      Posted

      Or you could even do1/2mg using the Dead Slow approach - lots of people do if they are able to cut 1mg tablets.
    • tpaggs
      tpaggs diana21296

      Posted

      When I got down to 2 mg, I started decreasing bt 1/4 mg every 4 weeks. Currently, at 1 1/2 mg. Because I 've been having some episodes of pain in my back I've decided to stay on this dose for 5 weeks. Also dealing with an unexplained rash. I want to see if blood work next week reveals anything. If all goes well, I'll then reduce to 1 1/4 mg. Believe me it's a real challenge cutting my pills as Medrol only comes in 2 mg doses.

    • Anhaga
      Anhaga diana21296

      Posted

      I've been using .5 mg drop with dead slow for a long time.  I'm now at a very low dose so I'm using the .5 for the whole taper, but earlier when I was at a higher dose I would drop by a further .5 mg halfway through the taper, so my new dose became my new old dose, and I had a new new dose.  If that makes sense.  I used to do this at the point where you have two sessions of two days old dose, and would slide down the next .5 mg the second time.  So I never had a day where I dropped by more than .5 mg from the day before, but was able to achieve a full 1 mg drop in a month, recently I started taking six weeks slowing down the taper even more, and now no longer attempting the second .5 halfway through.   But I'm at 3 mg for sure, and attempting to get to 2.5 so it's getting harder.

    • diana21296
      diana21296 EileenH

      Posted

      Yes that was also suggested, but while I am able to drop half mg every 4 week at the moment with perseverance the first week,  doing the DS method would take me seven weeks.  I do know not to be in a hurry.  The rheumy originally wanted me to be at 10mg by last June as he wrote me a progeramme and here I am on 13.5!! Never mind eh! The tortoise not the hare.
    • EileenH
      EileenH diana21296

      Posted

      You don't have to start at 1 day new, 6 days old - it says that in the text. I did that because I was very sensitive to changes, lots of people start at 1 day new, 4 days old. And with DSNS you might be able to manage 1mg at a time over the 7 weeks - I have to, I can't cut the tablets and that was the idea originally, to smooth a 1mg drop.

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