Can Prednisone Cause Tinnitus in Your Originally Unaffected Ear?

I used to only have tinnitus in my left ear, always have. Since starting Prednisone I've developed new tones in my right ear and keep getting new ones daily. Right now I have both musical tinnitus in my right ear and a loud train horn tone which I used to never have.

 

I have personally had old tones and high frequency ringing fade on steroids, and then new noises (not pure tones) appear on tapering.

I feel noise, while on steroids, had a lot to do with it. My ears seemed much more liable to gain tones if I was around noise. These "caught" tones all since slowly faded away to nothing post tapering.

Whenever I'm on steroids, my other "normal" noises ALL change and become a nightmare, especially on taper.

The new noises on tapering (low frequency wavering) have been with me for years (not a worthwhile trade whatsoever).

Dexamethasone is better to use than Prednisone, better results in not fucking with my tinnitus. Dexamethasone is stronger but it also doesn't screw with fluid balance like Prednisone does.

Unless you absolutely need it, I'd begin tapering. Slowly...!

If you really really need it, if it's for inflammation, maybe consider switching over to Dexamethasone? Equivalent dosing needs to be taken into account.

I don't mess with steroids nowadays unless I lose hearing or I'm going to die without them.

 

I'm tapering Prednisone at around 5 mg every 5 days right now. I honestly feel like I'm tapering too slowly at this point, considering the side effects are killing me.

By Dexamethasone, do you mean oral Dexamethasone or intratympanic Dexamethasone injections?

 

Oral. I'd do intratympanic if I could.

What was your start dose and where are you now?

 

The start dose was 60 mg, I'm now at 30 mg, and have been tapering for over a month.

Would you say it would be worth it for me to get intratympanic Dexamethasone shots for tinnitus? I'm scared of risking things getting worse though.

 

Wow, that's really slow.

So keep in mind if you are going down 5 mg a day, that

1. you have to think of your metabolism likely getting better at getting rid of it, and
2. the lower you go, the more 5 mg makes up a larger and larger interval of dose decrease.

Basically, once you get to 10-15 mg, you might want to think about 1 mg drops.

I don't think intratympanic steroids while you're on oral steroids is a fabulous idea. Taking it chronically means at least a bit made it into your endolymph, probably best to get off safely.