Pablo asked
I was on a 6 day taper of prednisone for back pain issues starting at 60mg the first day and stepping down 10 each day. I found that at the very end of this I started experiencing some serious anxiety issues...took about 4 days after I stopped To see improvement..I am about 9 days from when I stopped now but am still noticing a good deal of anxiety that seems to come and go.Is this something that prednisone can do? And something that hopefully tends to wear off as my body resumes it’s usual hormone production??
Answer
Yes, prednisone, a corticosteroid, is known to cause anxiety and other neurologic effects in certain individuals. In fact, studies have shown that related side effects such as restlessness, racing thoughts and insomnia have been observed in close to 70% of individuals taking the medication! Other possible neurologic effects of prednisone include:
- Memory impairment
- Headache
- Vertigo
- Increased motor activity
- Depression
- Euphoria
- Delirium
- Irritability
While the potential neurologic effects of prednisone are daunting, they are in most cases mild, especially with short term courses of steroids. One study concluded the following:
"Mood and cognitive changes with corticosteroids [like prednisone] appear to be common but generally mild and reversible side effects. More studies are needed to determine effective treatment for steroid-induced psychiatric disorders."For most, a dose reduction of prednisone or stopping the medication will result in improvement and disappearance of psychiatric symptoms.
After stopping the medication, the effects of prednisone generally go away in 3 to 4 days. However, if you were on prednisone for a long period of time, endogenous hormone production can be decreased, which will take some time to recover. Nevertheless, if you are still feeling adverse effects from your prednisone therapy after a few days, be sure to speak to your doctor for appropriate evaluation and treatment.
