PMR vs fibromyalgia

I think you may be correct.  If I remember correctly, prednisone doesn't help fibromyalgia.  My husband had it and prednisone did not help him.

I have both Fibro and PMR and my Fibro does not respond to steroids at all - it's a pain perception condition and in PMR the pain is muscle related.

I am on Gabapentin for Fibro, have tried others (Lyrica, Cymbalta) which didn't help at all, so I remain on a lowish dose of Gabapentin.

Fibro has no inflammation at all, Prednisolone is an anti-inflammatory.

Hope your friend can get the right diagnosis for her. 

If your friend's symptoms are responding to prednisolone then she has PMR and NOT fibromyalgia. Fibro pain does not respond to pred although I suspect there are doctors who will say it does rather than admit they chose the wrong name for the diagnosis. 

There are a lot of overlaps between fibro and PMR but the criteria are quite different when you look properly. The trigger points for fibro are quite distinct and while some PMR patients will also have pain in some of them there must be 11 out of 18 (I think) to make a fibro diagnosis. Other things are quite different. They also commonly use Lyrica in fibro and while I don't think it is particularly effective in some people even in fibro it has no effect at all in PMR.

If I were your friend I'd ask the doctor why he has diagnosed one thing and is treating another.

Audrey why was your friend given steroids if she were diagnosed with fibro? Perhaps the doctor might have suspected PMR do you think. 

My friend just emailed me that she received a new diagnosis today for PMR 

i don't know how it came about but I do know her son is a doctor and perhaps he had something to do with it.

Thanks for your input and I suggested that. she join us here