I am on a ton of medicationand and it still not working good. I was on prednisone a few months ago and I had 0 pain. Has anyone seen this and does it make sense to try taking a low level, instead of 125mg of amitriptyline a long with 375mg of lyrica. I am desperate at this point, I have trouble functioning the next day with all the medications I take.

I think it would be worth looking into "why" the prednisone worked. that might indicate that it is an inflammatory process causing the PN. If you find the source of the inflammation, then you might be able to address it directly and avoid the steroids.

If it's autoimmune based (which can cause inflammation), then it might not be an easy fix.

Steroids may help to reduce inflammation and make you feel better, BUT the long term affect of steroids (even low doses) on your body can be awful. Other factors need to be considered...like age, other conditions like diabetes (steroid increase your risk of this), bone density, etc.

I agree with the other post. Find out exactly why the Steroid is working. I avoid that med. like the plague because of all the side effects. I did take it for years on and off for an auto immune condition. I chose the condition, rather than take that medication. The benefits didn't outweigh the side effects. What was your DX? Hope you can find a solution that helps you better. ginnie

Prednisone works on inflammation. Having too much inflammation can be a sign that you are depleted in Omega-3 fats...which are used by the body to repair nerve damage and reduce inflammation.

The 3 vitamins that work with it are, B12, B6 and folate.
If you are low in either of these 4 things, you cannot repair yourself and will have increased inflammatory responses.

Eating alot of carbs and sugar will also do this, as it pushes insulin up and insulin works on fatty acid chemistry to create more inflammatory peptides in the Cox-2 family.

You can get a good anti-inflammatory response by controlling your diet and taking the proper nutrients you may be missing.
Then you might not need any prednisone.

Prednisone really disrupts other nutrients as well:
This link shows all the upset Prednisone can cause:
http://www.chiro.org/nutrition/ABSTR...steroids.shtml

(besides raising your blood sugar, suppressing your immune system and making infections more likely.)

More on other drugs here:
http://www.chiro.org/nutrition/ABSTR...orticosteroids

Not all drugs have been studied, so things like Lyrica/gabapentin do not yet appear on these lists.
I own the reference that was the source for the website I am linking to.

Prednisone is a very dangerous drug and is only supposed to be used for short term. One of my Mother's doctors kept giving it to her for a cough. She ended up with diabetes (side effect of long term use). It can also cause mental problems as well.

hi Ansky

Yes, I agree with en bloch.
to find out WHY the Prednisone worked on your symptoms. Because, the fact that prednisone worked, means that there was an inflamation. A lot of inflamatory autoimmune disorders, needs some steroid during periods of excaserbation or flare ups. Steroid, eighter in the form of oral Prednisone, or injectable steroids is the standard treatment for many such conditions.
And also long term smaller doses is sometimes needed in some inflamatory autoimmune disorders.
BUT yes, steroids have many side effects, and can actually be very dangerous at times, it can caus a slu of conditions.

But for now, you need to find out why the steroid worked. Actually, look at it as a clu to find the answer. That is how your doctor should look at it.