STEROID MEDS AND AGGRESSION

[opus88]

hi, I hope someone can answer this question for me.
My grandson just dx'd with asthma this summer and put on a diskus(don't know name of the med)
Starting abt 2 weeks after he started having trouble with a boy he plays with here(just babysat him for summer)
than he went home and started school....he's 10 yrs old should mention sorry.
Ever since school started he's been getting into small arguments and pushing matches and just generally aggressive towards others...
And for a kid who has always had tons of friends all of a sudden this year no one wants to be his friend...
He lives with his mother 500 miles away at a city where they don't even have a family doctor to advise.
I am very worried this may be the cause of his aggression, does anyone have a similar experience or advice??

[opus88]

should have read...concerned gramma....
have a good day

[opus88]

thanks caregiver ...I thought there must be a connection, he was here for the summer when he started the inhaler and within a week he went from friendly and had lots of friends to very hard to get along with, now back at home 600miles away he is having lots of trouble with school, no friends(this is NOT the usual kid) and in principals office 3x already for fighting...he is only 9 and again not this type of kid...he usually has hords of friends..
thx  conconded gramma

[caregiver222]

Prednisone in any form tends to precipitate aggressive verbal behavior.  Your analysis of the situation is right-on-the-money. This is not a rare reaction at all. The reasons are complex. Way back when there were sabre-tooth tigers wandering around,  an injured animal had little in the way of defending itself except "aggressive verbal vehavior". Whenever the immune system is compromised, which is a direct effect of prednisone in any form, you can expect inappropriate aggressive verbal responses to "threats". Prednisone has long been called "the monster drug" for this reason. Agressive verbal behavior has survival value. It is "hard-wired". This can be noted at the scene of severe accidents, when the injured who have lost blood will curse like a teamster, and then, in the hospital, after a transfusion and oxygen, become super-squeaky polite. This is not a "rare psychological side effect". A "different brand" will make no difference. Human beings have different thresholds at which this effect takes place. It is most common in adults when the dose exceeds 40 mg.   It is important from a family standpoint to "cut him some slack" if he "mouths off" ocasionally.

[Tammy2009]

The steroids used for asthma are very very very different from the ones athletes use.  The ones that are used for asthma are corticosteroids and important for inflammation and immune response where the ones that athletes use are anabolic steroids.  They have completely different pathways in the body.  

I have heard there is a rare reaction that gives psychological side effects from the drugs.  Ask your doctor if you can try a different brand of inhaled steroids, sometimes that is all that is needed to get rid of the side effects.  

[opus88]

Of course none of these side effects are LISTED on any site I can read(on any of the childrens...meds)
HOWEVER personal information is always MUCH more useful........You and I know of all the press that athletes get when there is trouble in their llives and than all the talk of steroid use is raked over the coals and of course AGGRESSION is one of the major side effects....
I know these meds are much lower in doses than what these athletes use, however in young children won't the side effects be magnified???
Doctors sure don't want to discuss this with you...and I can't find much in print but I will.
thx

[ChitChatNine]

Hi .. not sure.  But I'd check on the side effects if you can get the name of the med.

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