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Memory and attention problems on prednisone
I'm normally an organised person who remembers things and keeps notes & lists to help with that. This week though, I have twice forgotten to take my morning meds despite having a regular routine that involves frothing milk for milk coffee to have with the meds. That routine has served me well so far to take meds reliably and on time, till this last week or two.
My distractability is now high, unusual for me, so I've made the morning milk coffee but not taken the meds. A few days ago, I couldn't remember if I'd forgotten to take it, so my usually good memory recall is failing as well. It happens many times a day, so it's a worry.
I see that prednisone is associated with poor memory and reduced cognitive function in general.
"Because the hippocampus is one of the essential lability substrates for memory, glucocorticoid-induced adverse effects that alter the hippocampal structure or interfere with its function may impair those memory processes dependent on hippocampal integrity."
"One possible mechanism of injury to the hippocampus is corticosteroid exposure....an excess of corticosteroids causes both reversible and irreversible changes in hippocampal structure and cognition."
https://www.nature.com/articles/1395378
Mostly it seems to be reversed when steroids are finished. For anyone else affected, let's hope that's the case and try to muddle through the cognitive changes in the meantime.
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Yes, that's the way to go. I keep all my meds and supplements in a weekly dispenser except for the prednisolone which I left in their original bottles next to the dispenser. That means that as my attention and memory have got worse recently I had no way to see if I'd taken it.
Yesterday I bought a second weekly dispenser just for the pred, and that will definitely help. The objective of leaving them in their own container was to keep them as fresh and potent as possible, but since the tablets aren't individually sealed anyway, that probably doesn't matter. The new dispenser along with the note on the coffee frother will do the trick, regardless of attention or memory lapses. Thank you for the suggestion.
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1 ReactionThere's a good, bad and the ugly side to Prednisone so I have found out. I was on Prednisone 60mg in August, 2023 for possible Giant Cell Arteritis.; luckily I did not have that and count my blessings every day. At that time, I did feel like I was super-human and could accomplish anything in a short period of time, but that only lasted about 6 weeks. After the highs of that period of time, when I started coming down off the Prednisone, I started feeling what I like to call "ebbs and lows of the tide", highs and lows of Prednisone. It was a withdrawal that I did not like at all. I'm now down to 10 mgs and doing well inflammation wise; balancing out so to speak. My long-term memory is not too bad, but my short-term memory is shot. There were two words I used a lot......"remind me". So when I hear my husband asks me to do something later on, that's my response. When my daughter needs me to take her somewhere.........again, that's my response, etc. It gave me anxiety, because I did forget some important things to do (like signing my daughter up under a new Vision Plan). However, I'm finding that my weekly calendar and post-it notes are working best for me.
As far as the meds go, I have a 7 day a week med tray that has 4 slots a day. It took some juggling to figure out the best times to take all my meds so they wouldn't interact (I am on quite a few meds/vitamins/supplements for post Thyroid Cancer, Reflux, PMR, etc.). However, now I find it less confusing and easier to keep track of all my meds. Having a daily routine, a visual schedule, and organization of my meds have helped me to get through my days lately without forgetting what needs to be done. \
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