Can prednisone side effects occur even with low doses?
Note: these are very brief excerpts. The linked original articles also include numerous footnotes. • The British Medical Journal report describes the reassessment of prednisone that “began during the 1980s, based on recognition of severe long-term outcomes of RA and clinical experience indicating relatively limited toxicity associated with low doses of glucocorticoids (like prednisone) … Reports indicating disease modification even with low doses of prednisone or prednisolone of 5–7.5 mg/day are of particular interest, as doses of 10 mg/day are associated with adverse outcomes including bone loss and higher mortality rates… Long-term safety remains of concern. Higher mortality rates have been associated with the use of prednisone in an earlier cohort of patients seen by the senior author at Vanderbilt University and by others.” • According to the Journal of Rheumatology article, “Recent reports of longterm prednisone use suggest that even exposures of less than 5 mg a day may be associ
