Prednisone and My Son

[Michelle0929]

My son has had some problems and issues over the last few years and through his own research has suspected that he may be bipolar. He had his first appointment with a psychiatrist today to help him figure things out and the psychiatrist put him on a low dose of prednisone. My daughter and I did some research of our own to find out what it was used for. All we found was that prednisone can have very adverse effects on people with bipolar disorder. So my question is this: If there is a chance that he is bipolar, then why would the psychiatrist put him on a drug that might make it worse? I am concerned for my son's well being, he has tried very hard to put his life back together.

[kgill78]

Maybe its a test to see if he has bipolar.  because if he reacts badly to the prednisone and goes into mania, depression, etc. then he is bipolar.  Bad way to go about it though.  

[monkeyc]

Did the psychiatrist diagnose Bipolar?  

Short term use is not the issue it is prolonged long term use of steroids which can cause problems mainly in the form of hypomanic episodes and the resulting flipside.

Self Diagnosis is rarely effective - you can fit your symptoms to anything and the list of BP symptoms is a mile long and 2 miles wide and also fits many other illnesses.