Depends on how much is prescribed and how sensitive to it you are. Some common effects are increased appetite and mood changes it can make you mean or as my wife puts it 'a grumpy ass'. If you take it once a day id suggest the morning as it can keep you up. On the plus side it can work wonders at getting you outta a flare.

I think it's natural to be a little scared at first, but if you are on a short defined time course, it can be very effective with minimal side effects. Has your doctor discussed how long you will be on it and what dosage?

It depends on dose and how long you are on it. I was on it for almost 2 years, which is a long time. Only thing that seemed to work before we tried Remicade. I have developed cateracts due to long term use, so be cautious to not get in that rut! Remicade was an awesome option for me, but it is costly if ins. does not cover the treatments.

Prednisone can work wonders in controlling a flare, but it's not without its problems. As I always do, I'm going to suggest that you read the labels on all the foods you're eating (even though you're on a restricted diet) and make sure that none of them contain carrageenan. They use this food additive to induce ulcerative colitis in lab animals, so that they can study the disease. Most people don't have problems with it, but if you're sensitive to carrageenan, it's like putting poison in your system and can cause a flare almost immediately.

I went through numerous courses of prednisone when I was in flares. My pancolitis had reached the level of being steroid dependent, and I had some serious side effects. I would start with 60 mg daily and then taper off slowly until I finally had to stop using it altogether after developing steroid-induced diabetes--twice. Both times it went away after I was off the steroids, but the needles and insulin weren't any fun. Unless you're on high doses like I was this shouldn't be an issue, but if you notice blurred vision tell your GI immediately since this is probably caused by increased sugars in your blood.

However, and I hate to admit this, I reached a point where I sort of enjoyed the prednisone. I had enormous amounts of energy, didn't sleep much, worked like a demon and didn't have any symptoms at high doses. Did anyone else every have this love/hate relationship with it?

Finally, I gave in and started using nicotine. The only option left for me was surgery, and I wasn't ready for that.

Thanks everybody for the advice. I wasn't getting emails to tell me there were responses and I'm thrilled to get them! Great advice not to take before bed. I made that mistake one night. Not sure what I was afraid of otherwise, so far it's worked really well for me. I'm down to 104 lbs because of this stupid disease so my full dose is only 20mg. Full dose for one week, then I wean for the next 3 weeks. Kinda dreading that. This break from my colitis has been so nice!

hartsfieldl1: How scary is this carrageenan thing? I did a little looking around and all the additivies in our food supply is crazy. Baby formulas even. No wonder I'm meeting so many people with crohns and colitis lately. I basically eat chicken breasts and plain potato chips. Any deviation from that and I'm real sick. The nicotine thing: I read that smoking is good for colitis. I smoked as a teenager so I'm not disgusted by the idea of it. I bought a pack a few weeks ago and I smoked a couple cigarettes and thought it made my symptoms worse. Was it something else? Should i give the cigarettes another try?

Nicotine works for some people with UC. If you tried it, and it made your symptoms worse, then it might not work for you. Almost all cigarettes are also packed with additives. You might try the 14 mg transdermal patch for a couple of days, but as with all drugs it too has side effects. If I were newly diagnosed, I would NOT smoke. The drugs work for most people, and we all know the side effects of smoking are not good. Get a good GI and give the standard treatments a try first.

I smoke a pipe and use organically-grown, pesticide and chemical free tobacco from a guy in North Carolina. It was an absolute last resort for me, though, because I didn't want surgery and that was the only other option I had. Luckily for me this, along with a modified version of the Specific Carbohydrate Diet and avoiding all processed foods is working for me.