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You are here: Experts > Health/Fitness > Pharmacology > Pharmacy > prednisone
Expert: Mary E Scott, RPh, CGP
Date: 11/8/2007
Subject: prednisone
Question
hi mary,
my father is 80 years old with a life long history of smoking and has emphysema. he quit smoking 3 years ago and had bypass surgery 6 years ago. he currently takes coumadin, metroprolol and omeprazole. he sleeps with oxygen at night because he was diagnosed with sleep apnea. recently, he had a persistent cough and his pulmonary doctor prescribed prednisone. he took it for two weeks and has been finished with it for i week today. he developed side effects before he finished taking it (swelling in his gums, groin and feet with a rash on his feet, sleeplessness, extra healthy appetite). the doctor said these were all side effects of prednisone. today he went to his pcp because he still has swelling in his groin and feet, sleeplessness and the rash. he is now coughing again as well. his pcp told him if these were side effects of prednisone, they would be gone now. he wanted to admit him to the hospital for heart failure. we have a call into his heart doctor to consult about this. my question is this - do the effects of prednisone ever carry on after stopping the drug? i have read accounts on the internet of this happening but alot of the cases were with patients who were taking it long term. is it possible he would still be feeling the side effects of taking the prednisone? he had none of these symptoms before taking the prednisone with the exception of the cough. thank you for any insight you can provide.
Answer
Hi,Christy,
I agree with his doctor; the 2 wk course of prednisone wouldn't cause long-term side-effects once it's out of his system. His symptoms do sound like congestive heart failure. Cough and edema are signs of this. This is quite common in the nursing facilites I consult at. Prednisone usually will clear up a rash, and while it can cause edema,it usually will go away when the med is stopped. There is a test his doctor can do to find out if it is congestive heart failure-he will probably check his BNP level-if it is high, he may have congestive heart failure. Hope this helps, Mary
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