I have multiple autoimmune disorders. My first Prednisone dose was more than 30 years ago. I could take 100 mg of Prednisone and taper off again in 4 weeks for some of my autoimmune disorders. I could easily put uveitis and reactive arthritis into remission with high dose Prednisone followed by a fast taper off Prednisone.

When I took Prednisone for PMR, I relapsed every time when I tried to reduce my Prednisone dose. I was unable to taper off Prednisone for 12 years without having a PMR relapse.

The protocol for PMR is "long term" Prednisone followed by a "slow taper." Compared to my other autoimmune disorders, I can't say Prednisone worked well for putting PMR into remission.

Prednisone controlled my symptoms of PMR but never put PMR into remission. However, we are told to take long term Prednisone and "wait until PMR burns itself out."

People should ask how long do they need to wait for PMR to burn itself out? If the answer is more than a year or two they should seek an alternative to Prednisone. I had very few side effects from "short term" Prednisone use. Long term Prednisone use caused me to have many side effects.