Prednisolone induced psychosis - both up and down

Has anyone else experienced this?

On the way up starting at 40mg a day for the first week I was manic, euphoric, wired - didn't sleep in days.

Coming down the big drop from 10mg to 5mg a day caused severe anxiety, auditory and visual hallucinations etc.

I've been told that I can't take prednisolone again - and we're now now managing my taper in 2.5mg drops every few days which seems to be working.

Has anyone else experienced this? My GP was quite annoyed at my GI doc as given they knew I had the psychosis on the way up they should have tapered the way down much slower.

Both refuse to give me Valium, as I do have an addictive personality and they are worried I'll get hooked on benzos!

What are the chances of other corticosteroids causing this?

I had some similar side effects during my first course of Prednisone when I was first diagnosed in university.

I was able to sleep a bit, but only for an hour or so at a time and not much overall. Very jittery, wired and HUGE increase in appetite.

Also felt the effects on the way down. Even with a slow taper (took me FOREVER to get off), I had a fairly deep depression (abnormal for me - I am on a pretty even keel usually). No hallucinations though.

I have done a few courses of it since, though of shorter durations (40mg for 2 weeks, reduce 5 mg a week and then done) and still get a bit of the insomnia and jitters, but managed to avoid the depression at the end.

By all account Entocort is milder than prednisone, so that could possibly be an option for you in the future? Something to ask about for sure. Not sure what other corticosteroids there are?