I have been on prednisone for 7 years and have not experienced muscle spasms or twitching.

Welcome @macadoo. I moved your question about long-term prednisone possibly causing muscle spasms or twitching to this existing discussion:
- The good and bad of Prednisone for PMR https://connect.mayoclinic.org/discussion/prednisone-good-and-bad/

I did this so you can connect with other members like @beryl @edithmiller @marilyncarkner @johnbishop and more.

You may also be interested in this related discussion:
- Prednisone Side Effects https://connect.mayoclinic.org/discussion/prednisone-side-effects-1/

Several members have talked about muscles aches as a side effect of prednisone. Do you have aching along with the spasms?

Hi @macadoo, I would like to add my welcome to Connect along with @colleenyoung and others. The only side effect I had from prednisone in my two occurrences of PMR was significant weight gain for my first occurrence of PMR which lasted 3 and 1/2 years. I'm not sure that qualifies for long term use of prednisone though. Hopefully other members can share their experience with you also.

How long have you had PMR and been on prednisone? Do you have other conditions besides PMR?

I was diagnosed with PMR in September 2021. I am currently taking 10 mg of prednisone. I have experienced muscle spasms and twitching since the beginning. These have not been painful and occur only when I am lying down.

I have been struggling to reduce my prednisone intake below 10 mg. Recently I spent 3 miserable weeks when I reduced to 9 mg. I was in pain along with fatigue and brain fog. In the third week I discovered this chat group and it has been extremely helpful. The mention of importance of quality of life over speedy withdrawal of prednisone rang very true for me. An earlier post discussed reducing by alternating a current dose with a reduced dose and gradually increasing the days between the two. I began doing this a few days ago but it is too soon to know if it is helpful for me.

I have been on 2.5 mg of prednisone for about 10 years. The only side effect that I have had is thinning of skin, which leads to some bruising and maybe some bleeding with minor abrasions. Under my name I have listed some scientific articles related to long-term prednisone usage that do not note any bad side effects. One of the two articles defined low long-term at 10 mg a day. I wish there were more articles related to PMR and long-term prednisone usage. I only found two.