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Anyone having any luck with treating PMR without any specific medicati
Polymyalgia Rheumatica (PMR) | Last Active: Sep 13, 2025 | Replies (71)Comment receiving replies
I went 4 months between the onset of PMR and when I was able to see a rheumatologist and get on prednisone. I self-medicated with 800 mg of ibuprofen a day. I would say it reduced symptoms 10-20%, not a significant amount, but I was desperate. When I saw the rheumie, he commented that my ESR test was high, but probably would have been higher without the ibuprofen, so he admitted it probably had some effect. After I took my first dose of 20 mg of prednisone I could feel it working within 6 hours. At my 1 week followup I reported zero pain. In my experience ibuprofen is not an effective treatment for PMR.
Replies to "I went 4 months between the onset of PMR and when I was able to see..."
My experience was similar to yours. I self-medicated with acetaminophen to treat PMR and later PMR and GCA. I got a little relief, but not much. When I went to the emergency room for vision problems for GCA, I got 3 daily infusions of 1000 mg of methyl-prednisolone. I recovered immediately starting with the first infusion.I was also bouncing off the walls from the extremely high dose of steroids. And for two weeks afterward I had a hunger like I had never known before. There was no way I could get enough to eat during that time.
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"In my experience ibuprofen is not an effective treatment for PMR."
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Most people are started on prednisone as soon as PMR is diagnosed. After Prednisone is started, the use of Ibuprofen isn't recommended so it is hard to say if ibuprofen alone might work for some people. I wasn't one that got much benefit from Ibuprofen.
My rheumatoloist suggested Celebrex at one stage when I was on Prednisone to see if it would help. I think it helped somewhat. Some new research said Celebrex was supposed to have fewer GI side effects. Later research said the safety of Celebrex was just as bad as other NSAIDs so Celebrex was stopped.