Just 6 weeks into prednisone, I am wondering about the relationship between PMR (the disorder) and prednisone. My understanding is that the function of the steroid is to decrease inflammation in the bursae and therefore lower pain and stiffness--but it was no cure for PMR. If the steroid does not affect the essence of the PMR, why are we able to taper down from the level that first gave us relief? Are our bodies gradually making the prednisone more efficient? This query occurred to me after I found I could not go to 15mg (from a month of 20mg--I'm a big person) without some pain, but 17 1/2 works as well as the 20mg now. I understand the need to taper very slowly--I'm just wondering why it works, and I can't find an explanation on the web.