Suggest Remedies For Muscle Weakness And Fever While On Prednisone

Posted on Tue, 7 Mar 2017

Question: I have just come off of a two month treatment of prednisone for COPD I was on 60mg for about three wees and then cut back slowly to ten for three days then stopped . I have muscle weakness etc but every day about 4PM i get a fever on 101 . Usually I am about 97.3. The next day I am fine again until the afternoon. Is this due to the prednisone ? I am a female 75 years old if this is from the prednisone withdrawal how long will it last

Answered by Dr. Shoaib Khan (2 hours later)

Brief Answer:
More likely due to COPD, but need to rule out red withdrawal symptom as wel

Detailed Answer:
Hello ma'am and welcome.

Thank you for writing to us.

I have gone through your query with diligence and would like you to know that I am here to help. Although fever is not a common withdrawal symptom and the temperature could more likely be associated with COPD, a rise in temperature being a withdrawal symptom is certainly possible and so I cannot rule it out to be something else immediately.

The duration of withdrawal symptoms varies from one person to another, for a few it can last a minimum or 5-7 days, whereas for a few others it can last upto 4 weeks.

But if the fever continues to persist and causes discomfort I would recommend a revisit to your doctors office to get evaluated, to find the cause for the evening rise in temperature, which could quite possibly also be due to COPD itself or any other underlying condition.

Just for comfort you can choose to take a mild dose of paracetamol around 3-4 pm everyday if the fever seems to be restricting you in any manner. I hope you find my response helpful. Please feel free to write to me anytime, I am always here to help.

Best wishes.

Above answer was peer-reviewed by : Dr. Raju A.T