ANSWERS: 3
  • Asthma, Croup, Rheumatoid arthritis are some of the many conditions it can be used for. side effects can include depression, diabetes, dizziness, excessive growth of hair long with many others more info: http://medguides.medicines.org.uk/document.aspx?name=Prednisolone&use=asthma&section=full
  • Prednisolone is a glucocorticooid which is a derivative of a type of hormone produced naturally in your adrenal glands. I don't want to bore you with the pharmaco-kinetic activities but it possesses anti-inflammatory action, both chronic and acute. It does this a number of ways, including reducing activity of various chemical messengers and preventing white blood cells reaching their targets. As a result, it is also used as an immune supressant. Anti-inflammatory action and immuno-supressive actions go hand in hand because the inflammatory response is mediated by the immune system. Therefore, glucocorticoids are useful in treating asthma, inflammatory conditions of the epidermis such as eczema and conjunctivitis, severe allergic reactions, to supress the immune sysetm following transplants and in many autoimmune diseases where the body's own immune system begins attacking the body's own cells by mistake, such as rheumatoid arthritis, inflammatory bowel syndroms and SLE. In short, if you know someone takes a glucocorticoid, the only way to find out what for is to ask them, since, like the equivalent non-steroidal anti-inflammatories such as aspirin, have such a wide and common variety of illnesses and conditions, guessing won't help at all. A 5mg dose is useful in maintaining a therapeutic load, meaning at first the dose is much higher until the levels in the body rise to a level where they have a noticeable effect. Once this is reached, the dose is lowered to between 2.5 and 15mg to keep the drug levels high enough in the body. Side effects with glucocorticoids are notable because they are derived from the body's natural systems and so interefere with a wide variety of functions, notably the immune and inflammatory system, so a patient may be predisposed to infections or a chanage in the way the body responds to injury. hwoever, serious effects are usually following long-term therapy, such as osteoporosis, hyperglycaemia (they have notable metabolic actions, including reducing carbohydrate use, casuing high blood sugar levels which can develop into diabetes) and protein breakdown such as muscle wastage. In fact, prolonged glucocorticoid therapy produces a from of Cushing's syndrome, which is a hormone imbalance that can result in fat redistribution, leading to a characteristic buffalo hump, easy brusiing, changes in mood, thin skin and high blood pressure amongst other symptoms. Patients at the end of long term therapy must be weaned slowly because as glucocorticoid levels rise in the body, the body's own adrenal glands stop making their own. So after stopping treatment suddenly, a patient will be left with little or no glucocorticoid levels all of a sudden until the body's own production resumes, which can take a few months. This is why patients on long term therapy may be given a card in the UK warning medical staff not to stop such therapy in the event of an emergency admission.
  • Predisolone is also used to treat inflammation and decreased appetite in animals. My beloved cat, Cleo, lost a significant amount of weight due to an inflammed gut/bowel and she was put on 5 MG of Prednisolone daily. Initially, this amount of medication seemed to help her appetite increase but I would urge pet owners to please have your vet take weekly blood as, in my case, the liver enzymes actually increased after 2 weeks of medication therapy instead of decreased so the amount was lowered to 2.5 MG daily for a 7-pound cat. Hope this piece is helpful for pet people.

Copyright 2023, Wired Ivy, LLC

Answerbag | Terms of Service | Privacy Policy