From: ((Steven B. Harris))
Newsgroups: sci.med
Date: 15 Oct 2002 07:22:20 GMT
Subject: Re: My Methylprednisone Taper Goes On And On
Message-ID: <20021015032220.04628.00001503@mb-cs.aol.com>

>I saw my physician to show him that my allergic drug reaction
>(maculopapular rash) had pretty much faded.  And I asked him about
>discontinuing my Medrol (methylprednisone)--today I start my 3rd week of
>Medrol (at 8 mg every other day), and the side effects are quite
>unpleasant.
>
>Instead, he *extended* my taper even longer.  Now I have to do 4 mg
>every other day for 3 days, followed by 2 mg every other day for 3
>days.  That means I'll be taking an average of 1 mg a day of Medrol.
>
>This seems like an unnecessary hassle to me.  1 mg a day is such a tiny
>dose, what's the point of taking it???
>
>Anyone else ever done a taper this long?




COMMENT:

Maybe an unusually long taper for an unusually anxious patient?  Being treated
by an unusually anxious doc?

Steroid tapers are for people who've been on them for months, not a couple of
weeks. Yeah, I know a lot of docs do them, but I also know that there is NO
good evidence for one taper schedule vs. another, or indeed that any at all is
needed, after a short course of corticosteroids. It's all a medical myth spread
by means of the infamous medrol dose pak. Which is a pharmaceutical fashion,
not unlike Armani jeans.

SBH

PS. Anybody want to argue with me on this?  Quote your studies. Might as well
get it over with.