Initiation symptoms and conditions

My 86 year old father was recently started on Prednisone therapy for about 5 weeks to treat aggressive eczema. Since the initiation of the first does, he has had extreme mood changes. The worst one has been aggressiveness and irritability. He was on 40mg daily for 2 weeks and has been weaned down to 10mg this week and then 5mg next week. He also had sleep disturbances at night which kept the rest of us awake at night. Fortunately, the geriatrician gave him a prescription for Seroquel to calm him down. When he became angry, he had the strength of many men. He was paranoid and was verbally inappropriate. All I can say is that this is not my father and I have 2 more weeks left of drug therapy. With chronic renal failure, he is likely to carry the side effects a little longer. I wonder if he will swing to the other side of the pendulum when the prednisone is completely finished! In any case, his eczema is almost resolved and the itchiness is gone.

To a small population of people, this drug has an immediate detrimental effect to mood. In my case it caused a strong urge to commit suicide within 5 hours. The doctors all said it was impossible. I was inclined to believe them since these drugs are not meant to be effective for days after treatment initiation. However, my reaction cannot be ignored or dismissed.
The prescribing physician (Robert Moffat, MD in Longmont, Colorado) suggested I try it again because he was so certain it was my problem. I did try it again, and I had the same reaction. And so I filed a complaint against him.

Incidentally, I was not taking this medication for depression. It was for nocturnal panic attacks.

I am not saying people should not try it. I just suggest that FOR THE FIRST 24 HOURS WHEN YOU TAKE THIS MEDICATION YOU SHOULD NOT BE ALONE. It probably works great for some. Also see ******