Panic attacks

I can't address your immediate problem, but I am concerned about your statement that you will wait a few weeks and then taper to 4 mg.  I hope you plan to taper in steps?  Last thing you wan/need is another flare.  I do remember feeling oddly panicky when my dose was at 7 mg, but it doesn't sound like that's what's causing your feelings.  

It would be surprising if it were the pred when you are at a low dose and didn't have problems before at higher doses. But never say never...

Is there any chance you are upset about the fact you haven't finished with pred? That could be causing the depressive mood - PMR itself, like a lot of other autoimmune disorders, is associated with low/depressive mood. 

But do go back to your doctor and discuss it with them.

I've just received in my email a health newsletter from the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation.  There\'s an item about how combinations of drugs can cause depressive mood, and doctors aren't paying enough attention to this effect.  Can't give link, but here is copy and paste of some of the article:

A new study out of the U.S. serves as a "very important reminder" that depression is a possible side effect of many common medications, especially when patients are taking more than one of them, the Canadian Pharmacists Association says.

“I think it's something that we don't always think about," said Phil Emberley, the association’s director of practice advancement and research, and a pharmacist in Ottawa. 

A team of researchers from the University of Illinois at Chicago and Columbia University in New York — including a pharmacist and and psychiatrist — looked at data gathered from more than 26,000 adults in a national health survey conducted from 2005-2006 and from 2013-2014. The researchers catalogued what medications their subjects were taking at the time, as well as how many depressive symptoms they displayed (based on a self-reporting tool commonly used for diagnosing depression). 

They found about one-third of the people in the study were taking at least one medication for which depression is listed as a potential side effect. Those drugs include some types of blood pressure medications, beta blockers, birth control pills, proton pump inhibitors, anticonvulsants, painkillers and corticosteroids.

If I can find a link to this item I'll private message it.  

When taken alone, depression may be a “rare” side effect for some of these medications, said lead author Dima Qato, an assistant professor at University of Illinois at Chicago College of Pharmacy. What’s concerning, she said, is the fact that many people take two or more of them — because her findings suggest that the risk of depression increases with multiple medications.

"People are taking a lot of drugs and a lot of these meds have depression as an adverse effect," Qato said. "One to two per cent risk of depression, perhaps, for most of these medications, but when they're taken together in a real-world setting, it really matters."