Prednisolone/Prednisone: What's the Best Dosage and How Long Can It Help After Tinnitus Onset?

I've had a severe worsening of 'my' 4.5 year old tinnitus. I think from a noise exposure 2.5 weeks ago. I can see that Prednisone seems to have worked for some people, though they may have taken it sooner than 2.5 weeks after a noise event.

I've got some Prednisolone from my doctor, a 7 days course. But he's put me on 4 x 5mg a day = a total of 20mg a day. You can actually take 60mg a day so I'm wondering if this dose I'm on is low?

Could anyone who has had success with this drug advise on the dosage they used and the length of time after the event which caused the tinnitus that they started on the drug?

Thanks.

 

Usually tinnitus patients are given a dose of 40-80 mg per day. 20 mg is a very low dose.

 

Thanks Amber. That's my doctor fobbing me off then.

 

Did the prednisone help you?

 

No Amber. But I found out earlier today that the dose was unusual at 5mg 4 times a day. Should be min 40mg in 1 dose. Doctor fobbed me off. Ive got 2 days at 40mg left so may try it.

 

That does seem like a very low dose. I was actually worried that when I was prescribed my two rounds of prednisone that they were way too low. 60mg for 3 days, 40mg for 3 days, more taper. The ENT i saw was not confident that it actually was the reason for my improvement, but two weeks after starting prednisone I showed significant improvement twice.

The improvement mostly helped my hearing recover, but it also helped a bit with the constant buzzing/static tinnitus that I have.

 

You can just take vitamins A, C, E, and magnesium to try and stop free radical damage. However by now it's quite too late. I think the vitamin route is better advice because most people have to be referred to an ENT by a GP doctor. By the time they get prednisone and that's if they are even given it for off label use at least 1 month has passed and it's too late. With vitamins you can just go to a store and get them.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1950331/

There's hardly any studies for prednisone and tinnitus. Except one for acoustic trauma which showed that it doesn't do much for acoustic trauma.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/11318462