A study conducted in Spain shows Multiple Sclerosis Prednisone given in low dosage combined with Interferon beta 1a continuously significantly and dramatically reduced the rate of relapses in patients with MS. Prednisone administered continuously and concurrently is the key and needs to be stressed here. Neurological MS symptoms that are worsening are generally treated with a course of high dose glucocorticoids given intravenously. But this only seems to delay the relapses instead of preventing them, offering no real benefit in the long run. But the low dose MS Prednisone therapy given on a continuous basis and in varied combinations with the interferon beta 1a does seem to actually reduce the relapses, by 72% in this particular study done in 2002 in Seville, Spain.
So with this evidence, doctors at the Indiana MS Center tested the Multiple Sclerosis Prednisone low dose combinations and found similar results. The other benefit to this use of the drug is that it is low cost when compared to other therapies available.
Multiple Sclerosis Prednisone given in low doses daily
The group of doctors in Indiana conducted an open label study. This means that the participants knew that MS Prednisone therapy was being used, and they knew what the dosages were. The group was made up of 39 men and 149 women with the median age being 45. The patients were given 30 – mcg interferon beta 1a weekly injections but were given their MS Prednisone treatment daily at dosages between 7.5 and 15 mg/day. The study used the combination therapy for 36 months continuously and was then studied on a follow up basis for up to 71 months.
The EDSS results
EDDS or Expanded Disability Status Score is a way to measure the disability status of patients by classifying and standardizing the condition of people with MS. It isn’t perfect but the standardized nature of it at least makes it useful as a measuring tool. Patients who did experience a relapse and had an Expanded Disability Status Score (EDSS) increase of 3 or higher were given more standard intravenous methylprednisolone for five days, with the total dosage never exceeding 3500 mg/day and were tapered off the prednisone given from 35 mg/day back to a maintenance dose. Those patients that did relapse but did not have an EDSS score increase of more than 3 were treated with a transient increase of the prednisone dose from 0.5 to 1.0 mg/kg for five days, up to a maximum of 15 mg/day. The relapse rate was less than 0.1 in this group. This is at least three times lower than any of the other short time period injection treatment. With this Multiple Sclerosis Prednisone low dose trial, it seemed that high blood pressure was the worst of the side effects. Multiple Sclerosis Prednisone low dose therapy may become more common with this combination type treatment than high dose MS Prednisone therapy, which to date has not been all that encouraging.
