Jessica Brown. People with rheumatoid arthritis RA who are prescribed corticosteroids such as prednisone often have questions and concerns about them. But when corticosteroids like prednisone are judiciously in the right patients, these drugs can be safe and effective, according to Anthan Tiliakos, DO, an assistant professor in the division of rheumatology at Emory Healthcare in Atlanta. To help improve the understanding of how prednisone — and other corticosteroids such as dexamethasone and methylprednisolone — can help control rheumatoid arthritis, we asked Dr.
Tiliakos to answer some of the most common questions and concerns patients have about the drug. Prednisone is one of the drugs in a class of corticosteroids called glucocorticoids, which reduce inflammation and suppress the immune system. When using prednisone for rheumatoid arthritis, it is typically given orally, but injections of prednisone are sometimes used in those who have nausea or have difficulty swallowing, Dr.
Tiliakos says. If a patient needs to take a high dose of the drug, it may be given intravenously. Anabolic steroids are synthetic versions of male sex hormones and are generally only prescribed to boys with delayed puberty or to men with conditions linked to low testosterone. Tiliakos says there are two ways these medications are thought to work.
One is by stopping the production of certain pro-inflammatory cytokines. These immune system molecules are involved in both joint inflammation and erosion of the bone that occurs in RA. Tiliakos explains. The second way is that glucocorticoids like prednisone also act like COX-2 inhibitors, which are nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs NSAIDs that target cyclooxygenase-2, an enzyme responsible for pain and inflammation.
I remember when I was first diagnosed, I was too afraid to take it. I refused. If I could change anything, I would change that decision. Nine years later, it is a miracle for me. And I have reduced my prednisone intake by 4mg daily. Prednisone is a far more dangerous drug than methotrexate in the doses taken for RA.
My rheumatoid arthritis is still active enough to be considered severe, however. I have had weeks and months on end where I experience nothing but pain, and my only positive thought is that when my children are grown up, I will have a choice as to whether I wish to continue this life, or opt out at a time of my choosing. I understand the pain and the despair. I have permanent damage that will never heal. It will never stop hurting. We get enough of that already.
We get accused of being malingerers and attention seekers enough already. Living with severe chronic pain forever, as some people do, is torturous. It IS a very bad disease. It causes pain and suffering on a scale that most people will never understand.
No matter how hard we try to educate and explain. It is very rare to die from rheumatoid arthritis, but it is definitely life limiting, and life altering and incredibly painful.
It is a life sentence of pain, and disablement, and missing out. Of losing friends and lovers and all of your future plans. When I got sick, everyone abandoned me. My husband. All my friends.
Well, almost. One friend who is still my friend. And I never imply that I am, even when I really need some support. CreakyJoints is a digital community for millions of arthritis patients and caregivers worldwide who seek education, support, advocacy, and patient-centered research.
We present patients through our popular social media channels, our website CreakyJoints. We represent patients through our popular social media channels, our website CreakyJoints. Only fill in if you are not human. In simple terms, it has a completely different therapeutic mechanism in lower doses. Those are the facts. But it is the path forward.
I am single and raising two kids on my own. One of whom has special needs. Was This Helpful? Share Facebook Twitter Email. Another objective was to determine which treatment strategy yields more remission if the initial combination therapy fails. The study involved patients with early rheumatoid RA or undifferentiated arthritis UA.
UA was defined as an inflammatory arthritis in at least one joint, which in the opinion of rheumatologists, was likely to be an early stage of RA.
If patients achieved remission after 4 months, they were considered to be in early remission and could taper prednisone down to zero.
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