3 ms·

One course of an antibiotic might not "rot your brain", but one course of a corticosteroid certainly can. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steroid_dementia_syndro

One course of an antibiotic might not "rot your brain", but one course of a corticosteroid certainly can. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steroid_dementia_syndrome#Case_Studies https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steroid_dementia_syndrome#Case... I was on prednisolone for a couple of months a few years ago. I can't say I was very intelligent before that, but it's certainly took a toll on my memory and cognitive abilities. (No, it's probably not hypochondria, I didn't even know corticosteroids could have such consequences when I noticed the problem.)

techrat 6y ago
from that link.... > The medications included prednisone, and methylprednisolone, plus albuterol, beclomethasone, dexamethasone, cromolyn, salmeterol and clarithromycin. > The treatment with steroids was stopped and three years later (while still taking buspirone, albuterol, fluticasone and salmeterol inhalers, loratadine and theophylline) Yeah, this was more than just one steroid doing something to him. When you have a situation where someone is on that many different medications, it's no longer a case where you can simply point to one thing and say "that caused it." There's no telling what other underlying conditions were exacerbated in the process and what side effects may be due to the drugs NOT discontinued.
- kortex 6y ago
  Long term use of steroids is known to cause all kinds of nasty side effects. Prednisone I've actually found rather useful for bootstrapping myself out of depression but it tends to induce mania. Going for longer than a few days results in a huge high followed by a massive crash. The above sounds like nuclear option amounts of asthma meds and it's reasonable to expect potential long term effects. That being said, inhaled steroids are considered much, much safer than oral ones, due to much smaller doses and targeted effects.
einpoklum 6y ago
Those are two cases of one person each, with different specific symptoms. It's important to note that both of the people mentioned developed such negative effects quickly or immediately, which means that the other 99.99% of people do not react the same. Also, the first person got a bunch of active ingredients, of which steroids is just one. So I would temper my warning.

techrat 6y ago

from that link.... > The medications included prednisone, and methylprednisolone, plus albuterol, beclomethasone, dexamethasone, cromolyn, salmeterol and clarithromycin. > The treatment with steroids was stopped and three years later (while still taking buspirone, albuterol, fluticasone and salmeterol inhalers, loratadine and theophylline) Yeah, this was more than just one steroid doing something to him. When you have a situation where someone is on that many different medications, it's no longer a case where you can simply point to one thing and say "that caused it." There's no telling what other underlying conditions were exacerbated in the process and what side effects may be due to the drugs NOT discontinued.

kortex 6y ago
Long term use of steroids is known to cause all kinds of nasty side effects. Prednisone I've actually found rather useful for bootstrapping myself out of depression but it tends to induce mania. Going for longer than a few days results in a huge high followed by a massive crash. The above sounds like nuclear option amounts of asthma meds and it's reasonable to expect potential long term effects. That being said, inhaled steroids are considered much, much safer than oral ones, due to much smaller doses and targeted effects.

einpoklum 6y ago

Those are two cases of one person each, with different specific symptoms. It's important to note that both of the people mentioned developed such negative effects quickly or immediately, which means that the other 99.99% of people do not react the same. Also, the first person got a bunch of active ingredients, of which steroids is just one. So I would temper my warning.