Do you have to taper off a 1 week prescription of 1% hydrocortisone cream?

[iamnatalia83]

I have been given this cream for perioral dermatitis (around eyes)
I started Thursday and been applying twice a day as directed.
I have three days until the end of the course. I read about tapering off steroids but not sure if it applies to short term doses.

Not for cream and definitely not for hydrocortisone which is as mild as you can get

The tapering is for long term oral doses, at least several weeks.

It does apply to potent and strong topicals too, like Enstilar.

I even taper off hydrocortisone, yes - it's pretty quick though. From twice a day to once a day and then a couple of times a week. The end.

As PP have said, not with this one. It can apply for potent topical steroids but this isn’t one and tapering usually applies after long term treatment which this isn’t either.

I think I must be tapering out of habit!

Hope you get on ok, OP. Dermatitis can be a right pain.

I've used hydrocortisone since I was a child, never even heard of tapering off it! I had to use it for a week recently for an allergic reaction and just stopped using it when it was no longer needed.

Thankyou! Good to know I might not need to x

Just found this as I'm having a flare up and wondered about new treatments. @iamnatalia83 I really feel I ought to warn you that topical steroid cream is one of the worst things you can do with perioral dermatitis! It initially seems to be getting better, but then comes back with a vengeance - this happened to me during my first incidence, after a GP misdiagnosed me and prescribed steroid cream.

Hope this hasn't been your experience!
Here's some info on steroid cream and p-o dermatitis:
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK525968/