DOSE:	60 mg	oral	Pharms - Prednisone
	repeated	oral	Alcohol

BODY WEIGHT:

220 lb

I was prescribed a tapering dose of Prednisone (60mg tapering to 20mg over 9 days) as a treatment for a mild case of bacterial pneumonia. Prednisone is used, in this case, as an anti-inflammatory drug, opening the bronchial airways of the lungs.

It should be noted that (according to wikipedia.org):

'Adrenal suppression will begin to occur if prednisone is taken for longer than seven days. Eventually, this may cause the body to temporarily lose the ability to manufacture natural corticosteroids (especially cortisol), which results in dependence on prednisone. For this reason, prednisone should not be abruptly stopped if taken for more than seven days, instead, the dosage should be gradually reduced.'

I am guessing this is one of those drugs that I should NOT experiment with, or play with incremental dosages without leaving enough prescription to taper off with very gradually.

On day 1, I noticed a very quick onset of a long lasting paradoxical stimulation/drowsiness. I was warned by the Dr. that I could become irritable and have mood swings, but instead my general mood seemed much more mellow.

The speediness peaked into the evening -- despite having been sick all day, I felt surges of energy, and my appetite was quite strong. I cooked dinner for the family in a kind of manic burst, after which I was left a bit winded, but felt quite jovial. I found I could modulate any over-speed with 1-2 drinks an hour for several hours. I found this rather pleasant, as my alcohol tolerance of late has been on the wane (attributed to old age I guess ;-) My sleep was light and I had lucid half-waking kinds of dreams/visions. I awoke early the next day will no ill effect.

Day 2 was much the same. I felt a great boost from the fact that the antibiotic I was prescribed was working fiercely to combat the pneumonia. It is nice to breathe again. It was all around a sunny day. I felt the same gradual speediness coupled with a drowsy, kind of detached fatigue. I was hoping to get some work done, but it was hard to get my thoughts focused. At times I became absent minded: dropping conversations in the middle w/o realizing it etc. The evening was very similar to the previous one, drinks all around, a calm peaceful merriment. I felt at one point, a kind of entheogenic pre-glow, but I never punched through. The dreams were vivid, almost self-guided.

Day 3 I felt like I was teetering on the edge of a crash, the beginnings of very depressing and intrusive thoughts. This may correlate to the weather which was dark and rainy. I kept these thoughts at bay by staying busy. I did some yard work in the rain for a few hours before it dawned on me that I was recovering from pneumonia, and that my breathing was becoming a bit labored. I spent the remainder of the day just doing stuff with the family.

The night was once again protracted and riddled with bouts of sleeplessness interspersed with vivid and fun dreams.

Day 4 (today) and I'm going onto the tapered 40mg dose. So far I find a very peaceful, yet very busy kind of mental state. I've already done lots of shopping, and what not. I'm typing up an Experience Report and hope to fire up the grill for some early evening dinner.

All around this has been a very interesting drug experience; I wonder if this substance has any other kind of psycho-therapeutic uses. It has provided me with a calmness and an emotional clarity I have not felt since I was younger. It provides a very low level kind of euphoria; I'm going to come out and say it: euphoria is a very grand and noble thing to seek, and I think offering people well measured and titrated doses of euphoria could probably work wonders for our emotional state ;-)

But even more important, I wonder about what exactly the drug is doing to my system. What is its relationship to cortisol? How does lack of cortisol relate to mood? I hope someone is doing research into these kinds of things.

Exp Year: 2011	ExpID: 91592
Gender: Male
Age at time of experience: 41
Published: Oct 11, 2019	Views: 2,144
[ View PDF (to print) ] [ View LaTeX (for geeks) ] [ Swap Dark/Light ]
Pharms - Prednisone (226) : Combinations (3), Medical Use (47), Not Applicable (38)