Glossary of Drugs and Side Effects

Talk to your doctor or nurse about effective contraception before starting your cancer treatment. Let them know straight away if you or your partner falls pregnant while having treatment. Cancer drugs can interact with medicines, herbal products, and some food and drinks.

• The dose you have and how long you have the treatment for depends on the reason you are taking steroids.
• Symptoms of an infection include a change in temperature, aching muscles, headaches, feeling cold and shivery and generally unwell.
• Please note, our vets and nurses are unable to respond to questions via this form.
• Because steroids can cause you to put on weight or have an increased appetite, it’s important to keep an eye on your weight while taking them.

The findings highlight how important it is for primary care clinicians to prescribe patients the minimal effective dose of steroids for the shortest duration of time. The researchers analysed the medical records of 87,794 patients treated in 389 primary care practices in the UK between 1998 and 2017. They were 56 years’ old on average and had all been diagnosed with one or more of six inflammatory diseases. These long-term diseases affect different parts of the body and can be debilitating.

Anabolic Steroid Abuse and Addiction

Steroids obtained from a gym or dealer may be produced for use on animals, could be fake or may have been labelled incorrectly. If you take anabolic steroids, try to ensure you know exactly what you’re taking and that any drugs you’re using haven’t been tampered with. Anabolic steroids, on the other hand, are synthetic drugs produced in a laboratory that are the same as, or similar to, the male hormone testosterone.

• Men who may still want to have children should consider sperm banking.
• Patients
  may also be prescribed tablets to protect the stomach from side effects
  (eg. Ranitidine, Lansoprazole, Omeprazole or similar).
• Another one, palpitations were so bad I had to come off them, so I ended up with no painkillers for the nerve damage.
• If your child hasn’t had chicken pox, and is in direct contact with a child who has chicken pox, or develops it within 48 hours, contact the hospital immediately.
• Product information for topical corticosteroids is being updated to include safety warnings on withdrawal reactions.

And at that time also I lost all my hair, because of the steroids. You usually take steroid tablets or liquids at set nohairlosspharm times each day for a number of days or weeks. It is important to make sure you know how long to take them for.

I’m worried about my child taking steroids

Hair loss, I’ve got hair loss as a result of the medication that I’ve been on, as well as hair growth. I’ve got hair loss here [points to head] but hair growth on my arms and things like that, very strange. And, but I really did quite well, I can’t say I was feeling very, very ill or anything like that. I had the usual things when you go on to steroids, falling out with my husband, falling out with my son [laughs].

How steroid tablets can help your asthma

Although a prescription-only drug, they are often popular among athletes, bodybuilders and sportspeople for the performance-enhancing and muscle-building benefits they can bestow. There is no penalty for personal possession of steroids, but they are an illegal Class C substance. Outside of licensed medical uses, people tend to use anabolic steroids in bodybuilding, because they can quickly build muscle mass, decrease body fat, and improve athletic performance.

Using steroids to improve your physical appearance is not sustainable, but if you do mix steroids and alcohol, you can effectively ruin the results you’re working so hard for. This is because alcohol can negatively impact the hypothalamic-pituitary-gonadal (HPG) axis, which regulates the male reproductive system. However, when combined, some medications can intensify the “buzz” that alcohol produces. The same can apply to mixing alcohol and steroids, and most of the time, the implications aren’t considered.

“Previously, it was believed that taking 5 mg glucocorticoid over the long-term was safe, but our findings suggest that even patients taking low doses have double the risk of developing cardiovascular disease. We were surprised to find a strong dose-response for all types of cardiovascular diseases studied, including heart failure, atrial fibrillation, and peripheral arterial disease. The study highlights the need for new treatment approaches for long-term inflammatory diseases. These should avoid or minimise long-term glucocorticoid treatment and have less effect on the risk of developing cardiovascular disease.

Talk to your doctor about whether you need to do manage your diabetes differently while you’re on steroids. Talk to your doctor if you want advice on how to maintain a healthy weight. For some people their weight drops back to something more normal for them once they stop taking steroids.

NSAIDs (see Non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs)

If you get any side effects, including any not listed here, or in the patient information leaflet, talk to your doctor, pharmacist or nurse. You can also report side effects through the Yellow Card Scheme. Some people may need to continue taking them if they are not eligible for biologic treatments. If you do need a steroid card, make sure you always carry it with you.

Side effects of prednisolone tablets and liquid

Your GP surgery, local hospital or local community nurses will usually run these check ups. From personal experience, repeat prescription systems at GP clinics do not always monitor patients’ current list of medications and sometimes mean patients receive medications or doses they no longer need. Repeat prescription systems could be improved so that patients do not receive steroids after clinicians have adjusted or halted their prescription. The researchers call on GPs to regularly monitor and help reduce cardiovascular risk for patients taking glucocorticoids, even those on low doses.