Steroids are the most potent anti-inflammatory drugs available. They can rapidly reduce pain and inflammation. But they must be used under a physician’s careful supervision because they can cause numerous serious side effects if taken in high daily doses for more than a two-month period.

According to the US Arthritis Foundation, steroids taken orally, while still useful in special situations, are being prescribed less often by specialists in the treatment of rheumatoid arthritis. Direct injection of steroids into a particularly painful joint, on the other hand, is still an effective technique for providing temporary relief without the side effects of steroids taken orally.

Normally, your body makes its own steroids but when you begin taking steroids as drugs your body slowly loses its ability to produce them. For this reason, when you go off a steroid program, you must do it very slowly so your body can regain its ability o produce its own steroids. An abrupt cessation of the drug could subject your body to a harmful jolt. This is why it is most important to follow your doctor’s exact instructions concerning steroids.

Unless they are given in very small doses, steroids taken orally on a daily basis will eventually cause serious side effects in all patients. The side effects of steroids most often appear from several weeks to one year after a person begins taking the drug in moderate to high doses. They can include ulcers, profound mental changes, high blood pressure, and a high propensity for bruising, weight gain, and weakening of the muscles. Over longer periods of time the bones become more brittle, the skin becomes thin and cataracts may develop. Steroid users may also become psychologically dependent on them, making it difficult to stop taking steroids in spite of the doctor’s orders.

While steroids are usually taken by mouth or given by injection into the painful area, a third, less effective method is injection of ACTH, adrenocorticotropic hormone. This hormone stimulates the body’s own adrenal glands to produce more steroids.

Of all the steroids, prednisone is the most common and the least expensive. Other steroids frequently prescribed are known by these generic names: prednisolone, methylprednisolone, triamcinolone and dexamethasone.