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Up and down taper of prednisone?

Just wondering if anyone has been prescribed this type of taper? The doc recently recommended I do one day at 5, skip a day, then one day at 1mg, then the next at 5 etc

So my schedule would be as follows: mon-5mg, weds-1mg,fri-5mg,sun-1mg

That just seems odd to me considering that iv always understood the purpose of the taper is so that ur body can produce the cortisol on its own again...seems to me like this would confuse the body
 

Jennifer

Adminstrator
Staff member
Location
SLO
What dose did you start at and how long have you been taking it? This isn't the first time I've heard of tapering doses going up and down (I've never tapered that way but some other members have mentioned it), the skipping a day is new to me though.
 
I was on 10 for 2 weeks in February. Then when I was diagnoses with pg the derm put me on 50 with a 10 taper daily. Them when I got to 10 she kept me on for another 2 weeks BC she wanted the cimzia to be in my system before she took me off. And now she's given me this weird schedule as of yesterday. So UV heard of the up and down, at least that's comforting I'd never heard of it and was thinking of just going down without going back up a week at a time.
 
The up/down thing is crazy. See if you can buy a pill splitter (most pharmacies carry them; they're around $2) and talk to your doctor about dropping from 5 mg to 2.5 mg (half of a 5 mg pill), then 2 mg (two ones), then 1 mg over time.
 
Steroids should remain in the blood on a constant basis. At the low dosage you take, it might not be a problem to go for 5mg, 0mg, 1mg, 0mg, 5mg etc. but then I wonder why you are taking pred at all. Normally you should, as others have said above, go from 5mg per day to 2.5mg per day by just splitting the pill and from there you can go either to 1mg per day or 0.
 
Hmmm my doc has me skipping as well, 5 mg, 0 mg, 5 mg etc this week, then next week I'm off... so I think skipping is more common than the up and down?
 

CrohnsChicago

Super Moderator
I have heard of the skipping as well, but I am more familiar with the up and down (5, 10, 5 , 10) and the jumping doses (taper 10 then taper 5).

have you asked him/her their reasoning behind this taper that you are assigned?
 
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