Steroids: Prednisone / Dexamethasone / Others (Oral and Injections)

Thank you.

 

Are you talking about prednisone or some other oral steroid? Prednisone has a very short half life.

 

Prednisone

 

I know I posted here already, but I don't think the first course of prednisone did anything for me. I was only on 20mg for 5 days. Could this first dose been too low for me to notice any results after?

I went back to the ENT for ear pain I've still been having and he gave me a tapered this time of 60mg,60mg,40mg,40mg,20mg,20mg,10mg,10mg,10mg,10mg.

Should I give it a try once more? Would it be safe to do like another pack? It's been 21 days since my onset of my increase and I've been protecting my ear as much as I could already.

 

I started on prednisone after a week break and around the third day my ears felt super pressured and painful. This didn't feel right. So I stopped on the third day on the first 40mg. I couldn't take the ear pain and pressure.

On the second day I noticed my T did go down a little bit but not by much. I'm afraid of continuing and causing and additional ear pain. I think the first prednisone course I took (20mg x6 a week prior)caused the ear pain and discomfort, which is why I went back to the ENT. I even feel my hearing has changed a bit too on my left ear.

They looked in my ear for fluid and checked the pressure and everything came back normal each visit.

I don't think prednisone is right for me. I've taken steroids in the past and didn't have any ear discomfort like I am having now. I'm so worried I might have caused any otoxic damage now. Any thought? Was a good idea to stop right away?

 

Hello, I went to a loud bar for 40 minutes, which caused my T to go up in one of my ears. I called doctor next day and was given 40mgx3days, 30mg x 3 days, 20mg x 3 days, 10mg x 3 days. I am about to take last one tomorrow and don't see improvement.

What other actions should I take at this point? Should I seek more prednisone at a higher dose? Other options? I will call ENT tomorrow. They weren't the ones to prescribe me the drug. I saw one ENT on Friday and they gave me a poor hearing test that skipped frequencies for no reason in one ear. I don't think they were doing their job.

What do I do at this point?

 

Did anyone get prednisone for T from any kind of doctor besides an ENT? My ENT was so bad, he didn't even mention it as a posibility. Could I maybe go to urgent care and request it? Do you think they'd prescribe it?

 

Did Medrol cause a permanent or temporary increase in your tinnitus?

 

My tablets Prednisone changed color, it has black and brown dots on it. Anyone knows if it's still good?

 

Been on Prednisone for over a year. Granted it was not begun when the tinnitus first started but it surely didn't change anything. Perhaps it made it even worse. I've had tinnitus since around 1990. I gave "Tranquil Ear" (found on Amazon) a shot for a month and it did absolutely nothing so save your money on that one.

 

I found this systematic review. It talks about hearing loss but also tinnitus :
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1808869415001895

pdf file :

 

Hello,

I was recently diagnosed with tinnitus with mild hearing loss.

Dr prescribed prednisolone for 3 days (20mg a day) followed by a 2-week break and then another 3 days (20mg a day)

I notice this regimen is different than the typical tapering program.

Can you please share your prescribed regimen including the dosages?

Thanks

 

Hi,

I have taken prednisolone as I am going through a tinnitus onset right now.
How much have you taken before and for how long?

Today was my 5th day of 60 mg per day. How many days should you keep this 60-mg dose for, and how long should you taper down?

 

Up to 2 weeks, start to taper down in a few days slowly. That is a high dosage, good luck

 

The thing is that I did never "get" a prescribed dose, and now the ENT is gone.
I am today on my 6th day of 60 mg, so I have to rely on what doses you got to make a decision for myself. If not, I will have to "guess" a proper tapering ect.

 

Hi, I've seen some of the threads - and searched - and some papers online but I'm unclear as to the hows and whys of steroid injections for T? Is it it for any kind of T or just if your ears have taken actual physical damage from loud noises like gunshots or what have you? Thanks.

 

Only physical, and not just physical but short term sudden. Like hearing a gunshot or sudden deafness.

 

Ahh ok, thanks for the clarification.

 

Another study about intratympanic injection of Dexamethasone:

Intratympanic Injection of Steroid for Treatment of Tinnitus

Abstract
Tinnitus has become one of the most challenging tasks faced by the medical field. It has a moderately negative impact on patient’s quality of life. Different methods had been developed in medical science for managing tinnitus but none of these offered a permanent cure. In our study we used a simple procedure of intratympanic injection of dexamethasone in managing our tinnitus patients.

Total number of patients involved in this study were 40, 26 females and 14 males with age spanned from 15 to 65 years.

Out of 40 patients, 22 of them complained of tinnitus only while the other 18 of them complained of tinnitus with impaired hearing which was confirmed further by pure tone audiometry.

Injection was given under otologic microscopic vision through posteroinferior quadrant of tympanic membrane in weekly interval.

After receiving several number of injections, 24 patients (60%) reported complete disappearance of tinnitus, 10 of them (25%) still had residual tinnitus but comparatively less severe and 6 (15%) of them reported no improvement.


Source: https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s12070-017-1213-3

 

Yet another one:
A Comparative Study of Intratympanic Injection of Dexamethasone With 4% Lignocaine for the Treatment of Tinnitus

See attached file.

 

Hey everyone, I got tinnitus from taking Levaquin and it’s very mild. I also have inflammation and got a low dose of prednisone to help.

I’m just wondering if prednisone could cause my tinnitus to get worse?

 

I doubt it.

 

I did the steroid injections right in my ear, which actually stopped the tinnitus for a day. I took so much prednisone up to a point which it literally made me highly irritable. Coming off the stuff is almost like going through a withdrawal where every bone in my body ached. The stuff is no good. It's the only ting ENT doctors know to prescribe. They are clueless to Tinnitus, and highly recommend to say away from an ENT. They will only take your money and offer little or no relief.

 

ENTs are Surgeons, and they understand the anatomy of the ear very well. It is recommended all new tinnitus patients see an ENT for necessary medical checks. While they often not able to help, it’s important to help test for some of the most common causes.

 

Another article from another team:

Intratympanic Drug Delivery for Tinnitus Treatment
Monique Antunes De Souza Chelminski Barreto, Alleluia Lima Losno Ledesma, Marlene Escher Boger and Carlos Augusto Costa Pires De Oliveira Additional information is available at the end of the chapter http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.69664

Abstract

Objective: The aim of the study to evaluate the effectiveness of oral and injection intratympanic methylprednisolone to treat acute tinnitus associated with idiopathic sudden sensorineural hearing loss. Study design: Analytical, prospective and longitudinal study. Setting: Brasilia Institute of Otorhinolaryngology. Subjects and methods: Twenty‐three subjects with acute tinnitus and idiopathic sudden sensorineural hearing loss, 13 treated with oral steroids only (Group 1) and 10 treated with methylprednisolone intratympanic injection as rescue therapy (Group 2), and evaluated by audiometry, otoacoustic emission, tinnitus handicap inventory (THI) and visual analog scale (VAS) to assess the degree of tinnitus annoyance, before treatment and after 3 months. Results: The annoyance due to tinnitus resulted in a mean VAS of 7.69 in the beginning of treatment and 5.15 3 months after treatment (Group 1), and 8.30 at the beginning and 6.00 3 months later (Group 2). In THI, average was 64.77 points at the beginning of treatment and 49.92 points 3 months later (Group 1) and 72.20 points at the beginning and 51.60 points after 3 months (Group 2). The results of audiometry and otoacoustic emissions showed significant improvement in both groups with significant differences intragroups before and after, but not between the groups. Conclusion: The results suggest that both oral and injection intratympanic methylprednisolone are effective treatment for acute tinnitus associated with idiopathic sudden sensorineural hearing loss in these patients. Keywords: tinnitus, idiopathic sudden sensorineural hearing loss, treatment, intratympanic, corticosteroids

Full text: see attached file

 

I suspect I have T from noise induced trauma. Is it worth trying prednisone 11 months after the incident?

 

That seems quite late unfortunately...

 

No.

 

I shopped 5 ENTs in the area. No result. I was so annoyed by tinnitus. So I hurried to try another ENT.

This ENT wanted to inject prednisone into my ear. I declined. I noticed he overbooked his patients. I waited for one hour in the waiting room. He wanted procedural Prednisone injection into my ear, instead of pills. It made me think he just wanted $.

Well, I was desperate, I decided to take prednisone by mouth. I didn't notice any improvement after taking medication for 2 weeks. His office later called to schedule another hearing test which I am not going.

Anyway, I may try some Chinese medicine once I visit my folks in China. I don't know when. But I will keep everyone updated.

 

I'm debating asking my ENT if he would do an IT steroids for this new tone I've developed in my right ear. He's told me he could do it before. I've had plenty of IT shots with the AM101 trials and they are no problem so long as they don't use lidocaine/suctioning, but I've never had steroids injected intratympanically.