Polymyalgia Rheumatica (PMR): Meet others & Share Your Story

@mave14 The current widely used practice guidance for Polymyalgia Rheumatica (PMR) comes from the joint recommendations of the American College of Rheumatology and the European League Against Rheumatism (2015 EULAR/ACR recommendations).

Initial treatment

* Prednisone is the preferred first-line treatment.
* Recommended starting dose:
* Usually 12.5–25 mg/day prednisone
* Many patients respond well to about 15 mg/day.

Tapering recommendations

The guidelines emphasize slow individualized tapering:

1. Reduce prednisone to 10 mg/day within 4–8 weeks if symptoms are controlled.
2. After reaching 10 mg/day:
* taper by about 1 mg every 4 weeks
* avoid rapid reductions.
3. Total treatment duration:
* typically at least 12 months
* many patients require 2–3 years or longer.

@mave14

There isn't any "standard taper schedule" that has been studied in clinical trials that has been shown to be superior. There are only recommendations that have been suggested by rheumatologists with the stipulation that tapering should be individualized. A slower taper is needed after you get to 10 mg of Prednisone to prevent relapses and to allow time for the adrenal glands to recover after being suppressed by long term Prednisone.
https://emedicine.medscape.com/article/330815-treatment
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There are some elaborated taper schedules and recommendations that are promoted on some patient forums but these have not been studied and shown to work any better. The bottom line is that there is no single correct way to taper off prednisone. I like the following video because it comes from a rheumatologist who says there is no "gold standard" for treating PMR. There are no set rules for starting dose, duration of use and how to taper off Prednisone.