Common questions about prednisolone tablets and liquid

Steroids mimic the effects of stress hormones your body naturally produces in your adrenal glands. The adrenal glands sit on top of your kidneys.

When prescribed in doses higher than your body's usual levels, steroids like prednisolone dampen inflammation. This can reduce the symptoms of inflammatory conditions, such as arthritis and asthma.

Steroids also damp down your immune system, which can help in autoimmune conditions like rheumatoid arthritis, where your immune system mistakenly attacks your own body.

This can vary. For some health problems, you will feel better after a couple of days.

However, for certain problems or conditions you may not feel any better even though the medicine is helping you. This may be the case if you're taking prednisolone to stop your symptoms getting worse or to prevent a problem happening (for example after an organ transplant).

Ask your doctor what you can expect.

Taking prednisolone for many months or years can have several harmful effects on your body. It can lead to:

• thinner bones (osteoporosis)
• poorly controlled diabetes
• eyesight problems
• slower growth in children and teenagers

If you have to take prednisolone for a long time, there are steps you can take to stay as healthy as possible.

• Take regular exercise and make sure you get enough calcium in your diet to help strengthen your bones. Calcium-rich foods include milk, cheese and leafy greens. To check your bones, your doctor may arrange for you to have an occasional bone scan.
• If you have diabetes, you may need to check your blood glucose more often. Your doctor can advise you about this.
• To reduce the chances of eyesight problems, visit an optometrist every 12 months to check for high pressure in your eye (glaucoma) and cataracts.
• Make sure that children and teenagers have their height monitored regularly by a doctor so that any changes in their growth can be picked up promptly.

Emergency steroid card

If you're taking steroid medicines such as prednisolone your adrenal glands may not make as much of some of the hormones your body needs such as cortisol (known as the stress hormone). This is known as adrenal insufficiency.

It's more likely to happen if you take high doses for a long time (especially tablets and injections) or if you regularly use different kinds of steroids at the same time (such as a steroid nasal spray and a steroid inhaler).

Your doctor or pharmacist will assess your risk of adrenal insufficiency based on the type and dose of steroids you're taking, and may recommend that you carry an emergency steroid card (red card). The card is the size of a credit card and fits in your wallet or purse.

The Addison's Disease Self-Help Group (ADSHG) website has more information about the NHS steroid emergency card.

Blue steroid card

If you're taking prednisolone for longer than 3 weeks, or you've been prescribed a high dose of more than 40mg daily, your doctor or pharmacist will give you a blue steroid treatment card.

The card is the size of a credit card and fits in your wallet or purse. It tells you how you can reduce the risks of side effects. It also gives details of your doctor, how much prednisolone you take and how long the treatment will last.

There are other steroids available, including:

• deflazacort
• dexamethasone
• methylprednisolone
• prednisone

For most health problems, these steroids are very similar to prednisolone in terms of how well they work and how safe they are.

Taking prednisolone makes you more likely to catch infections such as flu, coronavirus (COVID-19), the common cold and chest infections. Tell your doctor if you get symptoms of an infection or test positive for COVID-19.

Keep away from people with an infectious disease, especially measles, chickenpox or shingles. If you have never had these illnesses they could make you very ill.

If you need any vaccinations, let the doctor or nurse know you're taking prednisolone.

Some types of vaccines, known as live vaccines, are not suitable while you're taking it. This is because prednisolone affects your immune system, so you're more at risk of infection caused by a live vaccine.

Live vaccines include the oral typhoid vaccine and the BCG vaccine for tuberculosis.

There are non-live versions of vaccines available for conditions including flu, shingles and polio. These are safe to have while you’re taking prednisolone.

Find out more about vaccinations.

Prednisolone will not affect any type of contraception including the combined pill or emergency contraception.

Prednisolone does not make you sleepy and so it's usually safe to drive or ride a bike while taking this medicine.

However, do not drive, cycle or operate machinery if your eyesight is affected.

Yes, you can drink alcohol while taking prednisolone.

Do not eat real liquorice while taking prednisolone.

It's thought that real liquorice increases the amount of prednisolone in the body and also increases the risk of low potassium.