that is the typical dosing by a GP for treatment of say asthma or some short term anti-inflammatory. PMR as mentioned can be a more lifelong condition. It may not need treated lifelong. One of the tests to check for PMR can be the fact that prednisone works. He was started on 4-10's or 40mg. That can knock out about any inflammation. GCA tends to run with PMR. It would be important for your Rhumy appt to have them check for that. That diagnosis usually starts at 40mg to stop it. Prednisone replaces your bodies cortisol. This takes about 2 weeks for that to happen. Once your body stops making cortisol then the withdrawals are similar to PMR. You can generally move around with dosage in that first two weeks. That is why his GP is moving the dosage. I moved from 20mg to 10mg rather quickly and then had the pain return below the 10mg just as your husband did. 10mg controlled my PMR for 5 months then I was able to move to a lower dosage. You want to find his lowest possible dosage. That would appear to be the 10mg. Your question of is it really 4mg. Yes. Once the PMR starts to fade then he will need to move to lower dosages fairly slowly to allow his body to restart cortisol. the 4-6mg of prednisone becomes sort of the wall for your body to restart. Depending on how long he is on the steroids will impact his ability to taper. Many cannot get below the 4-6mg dosage. Newer biologics are usually tried to help with the taper. You can get prescriptions I think down to a .5mg. The pills can also be split.