I had the most trouble tapering in my first occurrence of PMR during the last six months of 3 and half years going back and forth between 1/2 mg to 1 mg until I could finally stop taking prednisone and not have significant (for me) pain.

When I had to up my dose from 1/2 mg to 1 mg, I normally stayed on it for a few days to a week before trying to go back down to 1/2. I only went up if my level of pain in the morning was a 2 or more on a scale of 0 to 10.