Prednisone and depression

[216nave]

prednisone and depression

hi guys, i was just wondering if any of you have been through depression associated with taking prednisone. i have been taking pred since june and was on 20mg a day. recently i've had some outside circumstances kinda bring me down, but they weren't out of the ordinary for human beings. but now in the past 7-10 days i am experiencing a much much much much worse feeling. i am always in pain, though not in the stomach sense but my body just hurts and is always tense. i can't really eat much, and i can't focus on my work whatsoever. ha, hey look at that, they have an emoticon for this.:depressed: weird. anyway, i just want to know what others have experienced, and to hopefully tell me that once they went off the pred they began to feel some semblance of their lives back, because of course i've been sad before, but i still felt like myself. this is kinda different. thanks for reading this.

 

[RHOV]

i wouldn't say i was depressed, but pred definitely affected my moods. i would have horrible mood swings: happy/hyper on minute, and crying for no reason the next. i also had very vivid and terrifying nightmares, which put a damper on my whole day.

you should let your doctor know if you are feeling REALLY down. there may be another option if your quality of life is being affected so much.

 

[ladyB]

depending on how long ago you were diagnosed, our depression may have more to do with learning of your disease.

 

[rosie]

pred for me makes me eat like a pig, makes me feel really calm iv got loads of energy am barely tired anymore and is making me gain a ton load of weight. Also tho its making me snappy sometimes i get really bloated and a tummy ache every now and then ( i think my tummy ache is because some meals dont agree with me i dont know ) Im kinda scared to come off my preds because iv not had crohns before and i feel so well on preds. ( well to how i was before them ) i started on 40mg but currently on 30mg. I also get nightmares on preds too. plus shakes and hot flushes. preds are really quite bad to be on :s

 

[216nave]

Hi there and Welcome..I see you have been on Prednisone since June but did you start on 20mg day? Most people start at 40mg and up and usually have a ton of energy and feel good emotionally and physically. If you are still in pain you probably need to go either higher or be on Pentasa, or Imuran or both. How long have you had CD?

yea, i started up at 40mg, then tapered, but my stomach symptoms came back, so i went back up to 20mg. this is a really new feeling, but now my doc is cutting me back 5mgs a week...so i guess we'll find out what happens.

 

[Op.28/18]

hi guys, i was just wondering if any of you have been through depression associated with taking prednisone. i have been taking pred since june and was on 20mg a day. recently i've had some outside circumstances kinda bring me down, but they weren't out of the ordinary for human beings. but now in the past 7-10 days i am experiencing a much much much much worse feeling. i am always in pain, though not in the stomach sense but my body just hurts and is always tense. i can't really eat much, and i can't focus on my work whatsoever. ha, hey look at that, they have an emoticon for this.:depressed: weird. anyway, i just want to know what others have experienced, and to hopefully tell me that once they went off the pred they began to feel some semblance of their lives back, because of course i've been sad before, but i still felt like myself. this is kinda different. thanks for reading this.

I had terrible depression on prednisone, and not just depression, but personality changes. I felt like a completely different person.

I'm still very depressed to this day, but that might be because of some of the effects from the drugs, not that prednisone's depression usually lingers on this long...

Hope you get feeling better...Since you were on a smaller dose, maybe it won't last as long for you. According to the paper below, prednisone's psychiatric effects are related to dose--the higher the dose, the worse the problems usually.

Here, if you're interested, is a paper from the Mayo Clinic about prednisone's pschiatric effects: http://www.mayoclinicproceedings.com/inside.asp?AID=4187&UID=

 

[katiesue1506]

I wouldn't say I was depressed either, but VERY moody... hyper/happy one minute and pissed off/angry or sad the next. It was really unlike me. But I was also diagnosed and then placed right on 60mg of Pred. So I had both the discovery of the disease AND the Pred side effects.

 

[216nave]

I had terrible depression on prednisone, and not just depression, but personality changes. I felt like a completely different person.

I'm still very depressed to this day, but that might be because of some of the effects from the drugs, not that prednisone's depression usually lingers on this long...

Hope you get feeling better...Since you were on a smaller dose, maybe it won't last as long for you. According to the paper below, prednisone's psychiatric effects are related to dose--the higher the dose, the worse the problems usually.

Here, if you're interested, is a paper from the Mayo Clinic about prednisone's pschiatric effects: http://www.mayoclinicproceedings.com/inside.asp?AID=4187&UID=

yea, i definitely feel that "whole new person" thing. i mean, everyone has felt sad before, but this is like the old me is getting pushed out. i really hope that once i'm off of this stuff i will start feeling more normal. i don't know if 4 months of prednisone is a long time relative to what is normal, but i guess that doesn't really matter now. i have felt sad before, but i have never just broke down because i wasn't hungry for dinner! crazy stuff. yea, there are a few outside circumstances, but nothing to warrant all this, at least i hope! hopefully this all turns out good and i can look back and laugh. well not laugh, but at least not cry anymore. heh.

 

[ladyB]

whole new person

Ain't that the truth...lol


I think with a lot of powerful drugs they hold the power to alter your state of being.

 

[ErinDF]

216nave -- What you're describing in terms of how you're feeling sounds a little like a symptom I actually get from my Crohn's...sometimes when I'm flaring I get this really generalized exhaustion throughout my body. I think it comes from a combination of anemia and not absorbing food properly. It often feels like my whole body just kind of aches and I get weird cramps and stuff. So it might not be the Prednisone at all...? But if not...I also feel like Prednisone does weird things to people...

When i was on Prednisone at 14, my mom (who's a social worker at a children's psychiatric hospital) said it was like living with one of her manic depressive patients. SOOOO up some of the time, followed by SOOOO down other times.

Remember, Crohn's itself can be associated with depression just because of the constant stress, exhaustion, etc. Here's a CCFA website on the topic http://www.ccfa.org/living/depression/ .

So if you continue to feel this way, it wouldn't hurt to mention it to your doctor and perhaps go see a therapist if you think that will help.

Feel better. I hope the prednisone is at least helping your other symptoms!