Steroid injection question

If you reduced your citalopram 10 months ago and havent changed the dose since, you shouldnt be having withdrawal symptoms now, chances are that the anxiety has increased since the pain has increased again. You should probably check with the doctor about increasing the dose again

No to having withdrawals from a steroid injection 7 months ago. They are only meant to get rid of inflammation short term & unless you got the injections on a regular basis you would not have withdrawals. If you took pills everyday for 2 years like me you would have trouble going down even 1 mg.at a time. I hope you feel better. I hate the horrible side affects that I get from long term steroids like loosing 95% of my long thick hair, having surgery & the stitches go right through my insides so I had to have micro surgery from the outside to stitch me up from the outside in, getting up from my chair & taking one step & having half of my calf muscle tear off the bone,& gaining 55 lbs. even though I eat like a bird. The good thing is that I can walk again thanks to Prednisone.

You really need to talk with a psychiatrist about your antidepressant. They are so much more knowledgeable about that then a regular doctor does. I understand how you feel. I've dealt with a lot of chronic back pain for 13 years. My neck is also as bad as my lower back. Being in constant pain is depressing for anyone. I am available to talk anytime. Just seems me a private message. I know a lot about chronic pain.

Thank you all for taking the time to reply and answering my question. I am probably still having withdrawal because I have all the classic symptoms, brain zaps, insomnia, tension headaches etc etc and as sfazal said, my anxiety has probably increased because the pain is back. I was on citalopram for several years before I started weaning off 10 months ago, reduced my last dose about 7 months ago. It's a long process and takes years for some.

I'm so sorry for all of your pain, pmr sounds horrific. I hope you all find comfort and peace in your journey. Will be thinking of you.

You might try meditation to help deal with pain and the anxiety that comes with it. Headspace is a good site that has a series of meditations designed to help people deal with chronic pain. After a few months of doing this every day, I'm still not great at it, but it has helped me some. I've managed to meditate pain away several times, including osteoarthritis pain, myofascial pain, and migraines. It comes back after a while, but I have gotten some temporary relief.

Out of interest, what effect did that injection have on the other pains you had? A lot of people are told they have a shoulder problem - but it is often the beginning of PMR or due to the PMR itself. Then they realise the other pain went when they had the steroid injection.

I was told by a specialist that I had OA that was causing my back pain - no it wasn't. it was entirely muscular, something called myofascial pain syndrome which is more common in patients with PMR ! Try a second opinion and see what they think.

It is unlikely you would get steroid withdrawal after a single steroid injection as the level of steroid in your body wasn't very high to start with and it then falls slowly over time until there is none present in your body. Steroid withdrawal is your body protesting about a sudden change in dose - that shouldn't have happened for you.

Whilst I agree with all the other responses - I'd like to know more about the neck pain and headache too. Because I think it is still possible that some of your symptoms could be PMR, there is no reason why not.