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Budesonide - has anyone got experience with this?

Hi. I'm new to the forum. I'm from the uk and have had Crohn's disease for 13 years. I had a colonoscopy today (which was sooooo painful even under sedation) they found two areas of active inflammation. I usually get prescribed Prednisolone which I call evil pills, however this time the doctor has requested Budesonide 9mg over 8 weeks.

Does Anyone have experience with the two drugs? I'm wondering if I'll get as many awful side effects with this one as I did with the Prednisolone.... or is this a less brutal drug? I always get bad moon face with Prednisolone for example and depression. But of course.... has the Budesonide worked for anyone?

Many thanks in advance xx
 
Hello! I've taken both Prednisolone and Budesonide. I wouldn't be confident asserting that one was more effective than the other for me, since I took Budensonide in combination with another drug called Humira.

What I can say is that I did not experience any apparent side effects whilst taking Budesonide, whilst Prednisolone seemingly caused some mood disturbances, as you describe. I was prescribed Budesonide in hospital after reacting badly to Prednisolone, so perhaps they like to use it when Prednisolone is badly tolerated. I will note that I only took Budesonide for a relatively short amount of time (2 weeks).

Hope that helps a little.
 
I've been on both. Prednisone worked better but ya bad side effects. Budesonide helped but took longer and don't remember any side effects with this one.
 

Scipio

Well-known member
Location
San Diego
I have had budesonide and did not have any noticeable side effects at all. And it did knock down the inflammation in my ileal crohn's. I have not had prednisolone so I can't compare.

Budesonide in theory should have fewer and milder side effects because very little of it is absorbed into the blood. It's action is topical, meaning that it acts directly on the inflamed gut tissue as it passes through the bowel rather than relying on being circulated to the bowel through the blood. However, clinical trials have shown that people can get side effects from budesonide if they take high enough doses for long enough periods. But an 8 week course is pretty short and is unlikely to be a big problem.
 
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