Hello,

My condolences, I too lost my husband to early onset Parkinson's and follow the research.

I can share our very limited experience, not with a steroid, but with Benadryl, very early in our PD journey, which seems similar to yours.

I can't remember exactly when it was, but maybe a few years into our early onset dx, my husband (who rarely got sick and even more rarely took any medicine before PD) took some Benadryl for a few days-I think he had a mild cold. At any rate, he seemed to sleep better (sleep was an issue for him) and he said it helped with his other symptoms, which at the time were of course minor. The benefits stopped when he quit taking it and it filtered out of his system.

Of course Benadryl is not a steroid, it is an antihistamine. But recent research shows it may also have anti-inflammatory properties:

Are antihistamines useful in managing asthma? - PubMed.


From the abstract:

Abstract
There continues to be a great deal of interest in the anti-asthmatic role of antihistamines. Antihistamines have recently been shown to have anti-inflammatory properties that are more extensive than simply the blocking of histamine receptors. .....

I can't help but wonder if he had kept taking it, whether it would have stopped his progression, or at least slowed it down.