Prednisone Question

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I know that when you give large doses of prednisone that patients can become diabetic as a side effect to the drug. Does anyonr know if they will always be a diabetic or if they will always go back to the way they were?

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Specializes in Anesthesia.

Well not really diabetic, just hyperglycemic.. once you are tapered off of the steroid, your blood glucose levels should return to normal.

Hope this helps!

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Specializes in Peri-op/Sub-Acute ANP.

I have to take large doses of steroids quite regularly and have to monitor my blood glucose when I am on them for prolonged periods. Never had a problem with my glucose going back to "normal" once I've been off the 'roids for a couple of weeks. I've come very close to needing insulin a couple of times, but it generally spontaneously resolves.

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Specializes in Telemetry & Obs.

I am diabetic and steroids send my BG over the top!! As in 400-500 and more.

When I was having chemo I had one infusion of steroids without realizing it (yeah, I know...stupid me) and fought climbing BGs all weekend with calls from the on-call nurse q 3 hours. Took massive amounts of humalog to get it down.

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It is usually temporary. The condition you are referring to is "iatrogenic diabetes mellitus". Meaning... you had an adverse effect of treatment for a different medical problem. This happens alot with other conditions as well. For example, you could get an iatrogenic pneumothorax from a ventilator or a thoracentesis procedure.

Hope this helps! :nuke:

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