Prednisolone rage

[KentMum2008]

In the midst of a pretty bad asthma flare up, GP stuck me straight on 40mg of pred daily for at least 10 days. 8 of those bitter, evil little bitch tablets. I know they are little miracle pills, but my god the rage is unbearable.
My poor poor husband has been on the receiving end of all of it, and all he does is say "alright 'roidy Rita" and hug me til I stop screaming at him and start crying uncontrollably instead. If it's really bad he retreats to a safe distance and throws snacks at me
He knows it's just the pred but I feel awful that I'm being an utter cunt to him.

Any tips on how to manage the roid rage, or have I got to just ride it out and apologise profusely when it's over? I've taken pred before, but the last time I took a dose this high I had pneumonia and was in hospital sleeping it off. I'm normally stroppy but bearable on 25-30mg, but clearly 40 is too much!

I've been tapering from 40mg to 25mg and I'm staying on this for the foreseeable. I'm afraid to say that I, too, was evil on 40mg and it's taken a while on this dose to become less of a hideous human being.

I have holed myself up in my room and avoided all human contact. I simply would say "get out, I'm getting angry" and the family tried to provide comfort but soon realised it was futile. I'm sorry but there is no cure. Eat plenty, rest and stay away from others!

It's bizarre how such a seemingly small change in dosage can make such a difference. I'm lucky that I've got 6 weeks off work now because there's no way I'd be able to manage 3 full days working with 2-4 year olds with these rage levels.

I think the hardest part is how unpredictable it is. I can be totally fine one minute and then the slightest thing will piss me off and I'm a monster again.

Sorry you're experiencing the same sunny. Did your gp warn you it might affect your moods? The dr I saw isn't my regular doctor and she asked if I was married/had a partner. I said yes and she said to warn him I might be a bit 'up and down' for the next few weeks. I'm glad I did!

Yep, apparently the unpredictablity part has been the hardest for my family too. I hope everyone will still love me when this is over!

I wasn't warned but I've been on steroids many times before, so I knew. Evil little bastards that help my health problems, so I suck it up. I'm certain it's worse for others.

How long are you on them for?

I'm only on 40mg for 10 days provisionally, and then back to docs. I've not noticed a huge improvement as yet, been on them since thurs. Normally by now I'd be starting to breathe normally again, but still using ventolin quite a lot during the night and if I do anything remotely strenuous.

I agree, I'm sure it's much worse for a lot of people, particularly when they're on them long term. I'm not getting the insatiable hunger on 40mg though, when I've been on 25-30 I literally just want to eat all day long. I'm managing to eat once a day at most so far this week.

Are you on Montelukast? That's taken at night so might help if the steroids aren't doing much (other than causing rage!)

This is really interesting to hear from an adults perspective. My dd has been put on these when she has had asthma flare ups since being one. Well actually still not been confirmed as asthma it's been called viral induced wheeze. Hope you feel better soon
Oh and the point of my post was to say she turns into a nightmare! She was given montelucast a year ago. My god that was tough. We took her off it after two weeks. She suffered terrible nightmares

Oohhh dotty just seen you posted about montelucast. It's not commonly heard of. What was your experience like with it ?

Literally never heard of montelukast! Is it a fairly new treatment? My GP is an actual dinosaur, the asthma nurse frequently tells me there are far more modern and more effective inhalers than Seretide and always tells me to bring it up with my GP when I see him. He's adamant seretide is the best, and while it does work better than anything I've used so far, I'm still not anywhere near back to my pre-asthma diagnosis level of fitness. I was diagnosed with adult onset asthma at 25 (31 now) and am just fed up of not being able to always do the things I want to! I have a few weeks where I can go to the gym and be fine and then something slight will set me off (feather pillows on my wedding night was the last one!) and I'm back to square one for weeks! It's so frustrating.

I've not had any issues with it personally. A relative's child has been on it without issue but I have heard some people get side effects from it.

It seems (mainly from MN actually!) that it's commonly prescribed to children these days, sometimes instead of a brown inhaler - which us a bit bizarre as asthma (or things with those symptoms I assume) is a stepped approach, the first 2 being blue inhaler, then brown. Additional therapies are supposed to be on top of those, not in a different order. Or that's what I understood anyway.

Mangomay, see my reply to katy regarding the stepped approach.

But..... I'd suggest seeing if they'll refer you to a respiratory specialist. Seretide is great for many people but not everyone responds to the same things.

Adult onset asthma is rubbish (early onset probably no walk in the park either) and it does sound like you need specialist involvement to get the drugs right.

I've been on various inhalers and other drugs. Can you see another GP if this one is no help?

I don't like seretide as an inhaler at all. Fostair is a good inhaler for asthma. If you are having regular exacerbations (flare ups) ask for referral to respiratory specialists.

There are lots and lots of other treatment options available if you are under the care of the respiratory team.

And yes, steroids are evil for the side effects, but they are stopping you from ending up in ICU or worse

I feel your pain, I've been on 40-60mg for most of the last 4 years. Tapered down to 10 every 2 days, and I feel like a new woman (other than side effects from my steroid sparing meds, and the 6 stone overweight I am!)

My advice would be to Disney yourself - watch uplifting films and series, take walks (only in nice weather), treat yourself to cakes and afternoon tea.

I found the more positive things I experienced, the further away the rage monster would stay. Avoid housework unless you had appliances you don't mind smashing, and avoid fiddly things like changing plugs or doing tax returns. Try your best not to get in situations where you are frustrated, that is the worst for bringing on the RAGE!

Good luck and I hope you get better soon, I had asthma when I was younger and it's awful not being able breathe properly.

Some asthma doesn't respond well to steroids either. Absolutely not saying that yours doesn't or won't (hopefully yours will kick in soon!) and of course no-one should stop medication, but sometimes other therapies work better (or prevent the need for steroids in the first place).

Thanks for all the replies

The Gp i saw last week isn't my regular Gp, she was far more helpful. I know for a fact my GP has thursdays off so I'm making a point of only having spots on thurs from now on!

My sisters asthma has been poorly controlled her whole life (funny enough we had the same doctor for most of that time too) but she moved a few years ago and her new Dr put her on a different inhaler altogether, Symbicort maybe? It's orange and a funny shape! She hasn't used her reliever for over a year now so I'm gonna make an appt to see another Gp and discuss changing to something different.

With regards to flare ups, I know full well what my triggers are (cats, dogs, fucking feathers, some kinds of household cleaners, dust and pollution) it's just tricky to avoid them. But I might ask about referral to a specialist, because 6 years of flare ups is starting to wear me down! Especially the tiredness.

Oh also smoke is a trigger, less so cigarette smoke bizarrely (my SIL smokes in her house and I can suffer a few hours round there without feeling any effects) but actual smoke. I discovered this when I accidentally set a tray of yorkshires on fire and ended up having a neb in the urgent care centre

Coffee I smashed at least 3 mugs this week....DH just bought me a nice new one which cheered me up, but then I started crying again.....

My DS was on 8 pills a day as a toddler for a kidney condition. You've seen NOTHING till you've seen a steroid fuelled tantrum! One memorable hospital visit involved him running at the wall, bouncing off and running at the other wall! Bonkers drugs. But sometimes necessary.

I have adult onset asthma and have symbicort. It was life changing for me and I never need my reliever any more.

I have had montelukast but it didn't make much difference to me apart from giving me horrendous nightmares.

I occasionally have a flare up and need steroids. I had a bad chest infection at Christmas and needed steroids and antibiotics.

I can't give any advice on avoiding the roid rage I'm afraid as I suffer from it every time. I feel permanently angry but also invincible which is a dangerous combination.

I hope you feel better soon.

My little sweet pug went CRAZY on prednisolone!

I've been told when montelucast works it really works. Worth looking into op ? My dd after a really bad period ( blue light to hospital twice in two weeks ) was put on a new preventive inhaler. I haven't got it near me but I think it's flixotide. It's in an orange casing. Since starting that she has managed to battle every single cold she gets whereas before if she sneezed we were in hospital exactly three days later. The last two admissions were particularly bad and worrying. So we so pleased it's finally under control.

I think I'd be a bit wary of a drug that could potentially give me nightmares because I suffer terribly with them anyway. I'm going to make an appt with the asthma nurse and have a good long chat with her. The spots are usually 20 mins long, as opposed to the 5 mins you get with the GP.

I've been so much less ragey today, thank fuck, because I was genuinely starting to worry about leaving the house. It seems to have been replaced by something closely resembling hyperactivity though. Which is fine because my house is spotless and I managed to get down to Waitrose and do a big shop at 8:30pm before they closed at 9! I'm on fire today
I do feel like as soon as I get into bed I'm going to crash though, like really crash.

Ugh appts not spots

See a different GP. Montelukast has been around for at least 15 years.

Apparently either you respond to it or you don't - luckily I do and I think it's marvellous. I also really like my Fostair inhaler.

If you are having flare-ups that regularly you have poorly controlled asthma and need to see someone else - either a better GP or a respiratory doc. I would suggest the latter, espcially as you have symptoms from prednisolone. If you haven't got back you pre-asthma levels of fitness it doesn't sound like you have ever got full control since diagnosis - you need sorting out.

I've definitely never had it fully controlled. Not for more than a few months at a time at least.