I've been on Pred for 5 weeks now, found out I had RA in April this year. Today I've been so sad, but not becuase of anything really. Does Pred make you sad?
It can. I've been on prednisone for 9 months, now. It doesn't make me sad, but that can be one of its side effects. RA can also cause depression - it can affect a lot of your body.
Prednisone is not a friendly treatment. You want to get off it, if possible, as soon as you can. Have you started any other treatment yet? The goal is to get off the prednisone and onto a real DMARD that controls your disease.
Oh yeah! It can make me fighting mad one minute and crying the next. I hate that stuff....but it sure does get you back on your feet fast.
Fiona is very right. It's best used for short terms. If you started it in April and haven't started a DMARD like Sulfersazine, plaquinel or MTX talk to your doctor about your long term options. Predisone shouldn't be one of them. Granted some folks have stubborn cases and seem to be stuck on it; but with proper treatment you should be able to just use it on occations when you have a stubborn flair. Long term use is not advised.
But yes; could very well be the predisone. Hang in there.
When I first came down with RA, I could hardly move. Every part of my body hurt so bad. Swollen ankles, hands, carpal tunnel from RA, etc. I was SO down.
When I first went to my Rheumy he put me on 5 mg of pred. immediately while I was getting tests done. It was my salvation. I wasn't depressed because I felt so much better.
After the tests, I was dx with RA and started on DMARDS. I finally weened myself off the pred. which took about 5-6 months to do. Sometimes a 1/2 at a time, but I did it.
So the pred didn't make me depressed, just the thought of having a disease I never thought I would have and no cure. So, I think the depression comes from the fact you feel helpless and you have a disease that can't be cured my a pill.
But once you get on DMARDs you will feel better hopefully after a few months, and your life won't seem so uncontrollable.
Susan
I'm fortunate and stubborn. After reading many threads here about the predinose with the weight gain, mood swings, difficulty getting off of it, my rhuemy and I agreed not to even start it if at possible.Rain~I'd really encourage you to try the MTX. I know for certain that Humira wouldn't not be as effective for me without it. I've had little to no problems at all on it and I've taken it for I guess 4 years now.
I'm to the point now that I'm starting to decrease my dosage.
Predisone has the potential to be more harmful than the MTX long term. They will monitor you closely for problems.
Give it serious consideration.
Best Wishes.
I think most of us go through one med after another until, with luck, we find the one that controls our disease. It's not uncommon to have to try several. I can tell you I'm on MTX & now Arava, and so far, I've had no major side effects at all. What you read is scary - those are the things that CAN happen, not the things that DO happen.Hi Rain,
Like Lovie, I suggest you give the mtx a go too. As I said on another recent post, I've been on it for 3 months now and my knee swelling has gone away for the first time in over a year! (But remember it can take anywhere from 4-12 weeks to start to make a difference.)
Also, Enbrel (and the other newer drugs) has just as many rare but serious side-effects if you read all the data.
My best wishes to you,
I was also diagnosed in late April early May time frame with RA and I must say i was very depressed and to a large extent still am. It was more of "why me" syndrome than anything, especially on the days where it was very hard to function. just getting up and going to the bathroom was a chore and that can be very depressing. then fighting with insurance companies and getting in to see a good doctor can be a battle in itself. I was put on pred and it took away the pain, but not the depression. Wish I had some great advice to give you, but I am still fighting it myself, but the others on this forum offer great advice and information and i feel lucky that I found this spot.
Phil
Some people do seem to have the side effect of "moodiness" with prednisone...and it is also true that having a chronic, debilitating disease can kinda get you down too. Thats where we all come in...to try and pull each other out of the quick sand before we sink in to far!
But it is pretty normal to have gloomy days. Hope tomorrow is a better one!
Hope you are feeling better very soon. I'm sure the
I hope the mtx starts to help you soon. Your job must be challenging (to say the least) for someone with arthritis! All the best, Hi to All! Good old prednisone! Most of us have a love-hate relationship with it!
I used to be so very thankful for the immediate relif it would give me in a short period of treatment. I'd started with 10 mg. for 5 days. Then, I'd eventually gotten up to 20 mg. for 10 days. that , after awhile had turned into 20 mg for a month or two. Next came the 30 mg. for 9 months! Found a new rheumatologist, went on plaquenil and more narcotic pain meds, and started to taper off of the prednisone. This was very difficult for me. It took me nine months to get down to 5 mg. I cannot get any lower! Yet, I am still in agony! Doc doesn't want me to increase it at all...ever...because I had become "toxic" on it before the "taper!" What a nightmare! I had used it for over ten years, intermittently, before I'd really started to have problems with it! Wow! I mis it, as it used to help so quickly and used to "wrap up" these "relapses" very quickly! Prednisone does mess with the brain, specifically the "limbic system." (The area responsible for emotions!) Many become seriously depressed on prednisone. Many become very happy and energetic! Many become angry and a bit enraged! It can vary. Some people do not have much of a problem with it "emotionally." Others have lost their marriages, etc. because of the way it simply wigged them out!" I'd generally felt good on it. Would get rid of severe pain, and would feel some strength in my muscles again! My very last "trial" of it, was even after the "toxic" reaction. Docs felt they'd had to use it in an emergency..short-term! For the first time, I fully experienced a drug-induced mania. Wow! Colorful hallucinations and all! It was very disconcerting! Had to get off of it without a taper down..right away. (Well, back down to 5 mg. from the temporary increase to 20 mg.!) I'd wanted desperately to go to my niece's wedding! I was in too much pain... I could not walk, stand, etc. (Too proud to use a wheelchair, I guess.) I was also in so much pain I could not visit and I could not tolerate noise or anything. So.. a couple of days of "pred," and i could likely make it to the wedding, which was local! Nothing doing...I was in that pred-induced manic state. I did not belong out anywhere. (It did give me a great deal of empathy for people struggling with mania in bipolar illnesses.) There are times this very week that I would give my eye teeth to have one or two 20 mg. tabs of it..just to get even 24 hours of relief! It will n ot happen though. Docs say once a person has had the types of reactions I have now had, the person will continue to react that way to prednisone? Goota go! My dof needs to go out!
If I take the prednisone and not in such a flare, it also gives me a lot more energy. Coming down off of it has been very, very hard for me. But my sed rate is still high, so the doctor is a bit more kind about my coming off of it slowly. Regarding the depression that comes with this, I think it is important to realize when you are feeling most depressed. If I feel bad physically, I feel depressed. I mean unrelenting pain is just depressing. That's a fact of life. And, they are learning that if they treat depression and pain at the same time, there is less pain. I bounce back pretty good when I'm feeling even a little better. But that's the way I've always been. But anyone that reads my posts knows that there are times when I get depressed and overwhelmed. RA is like standing on the shoreline and being unable to move out of the waves that are coming in at evening tide. A sane person would move out of the way. But we can't. Our feet are mired in the sand and we cannot move. So, the waves beat against us. They come in the form of more medicines, more tests, more complications, additional diseases. Fatigue hammers at us. And waves of pain crash down on us. But the tide will go out again. You have to realize that. And when your feet are not mired, and you can move again, you can take more precautions against being caught in these waves. You do that by learning to rest and learning to exercise, eating right, sleeping well. You get the best medicine regime you can. And, if necessary, you get antidepressants. The waves will still come. It's part of your life now. But each time you go through them, you become stronger inside. That's how you survive.
mtx will really help. i was afraid to take it for the first
several weeks, but now I'm so glad I do.Hello everyone
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