Taking prednisone dose, morning and evening

Hi @amfb, Welcome to Connect. My PMR is in remission now but the two times it was active I took the dose early in the morning with my blood pressure pills, normally around 6 to 6:30 am. The only thing I had read about is splitting the dosage could cause Adrenal suppression and also affect the sleep. More info on that here:

-- Circadian rhythms in rheumatology - a glucocorticoid perspective: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4249493/

I do remember other members here on Connect who have mentioned splitting the prednisone dosage helped them. I als found a study that discussed the topic which was kind of interesting. The one key I read is not to take the second dosage too late in the day. They mentioned around 8 am for the first and around 2 to 3 pm for the second dose .
-- Timing of glucocorticoid administration: a cross-sectional survey of glucocorticoid users in an online social network for health: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5410988/

You might want to keep a daily pain/symptoms log along with the dosages for the day to see how it goes. Do you normally keep a daily pain and dosage log?

I have seen many on here who split the dose with success; even considered it myself. Rheumatologists in general want us to follow "their schedule". Mine does this as well, but her schedule is not working for my body. Listen to your body. Don't decrease too quickly, as John mentioned. I too am considering shopping around, but waited a long time (5.5 months) to see her. She doesn't want to see me again for 4 months, which is now 3. I'm at 12.5 mg and supposed to go down another mg. starting tomorrow. Put my back out a week ago and it's still out. Seems like I'm tolerating Ibuprofen with food, which I could not a few months ago. I'm feeding a lot of stuff into my body and I don't like it at all but whatever works. I thought Prednisone was supposed to handle all pain, but it is def not helping my lower back. So Tylenol/IB combo for awhile I guess. All the best with your split dosage. Doesn't hurt to give it a shot. Take care ~ Deb

Deb, @milld835 your back pain may be nerve pain which would be different than pain from inflammation which is what the steroids help with. Talk with your PCP about possibly getting tests to determine root cause of back pain. I am having problems with doctors wanting to assign all my pain to PMR, what I call "piling on". I have had to be a strong advocate for myself over this, in the end I did have other causes for some of my pain. All were successfully separately treated and never would have responded to steroids.

Yes. I agree and I've also become my own advocate at this point. It could possibly a recurrence of a herinated disc from a couple of years ago. I don't have a PCP or GP (mine retired). On a waitlist for a family doc. I just thought that the Prednisone would help any inflammation, i.e. disc in this case. I don't think this is PMR, so I've been trying to take Ibuprofen/Tylenol together which, in the past, has work for this pain. It does help somewhat. Thanks for your help; much appreciated.

I have struggled for many months, maybe a year. I have been on a prednisone maintenance dose of 5mg. I have used prednisone for 25 years. I also am on pain meds, muscle relaxer in the evening, all for autoimmune/spinal stenosis. I have today taken half dose prednisone, the side effects of irregular heart beat, no energy, just being listless was so much better. About 1p I took another qtr of this pill. I will do anything to be able to get up and go have a productive day. My doctor is out of town. I have asked the on call doctor for advice. Thank you for those who have better results taking a lesser dose in a.m. and remaining in p.m. I am elderly, and want to do so much and not be stuck in this recliner.