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A member asked:

I have adrenal insuff (long term steroids/crohn's) am tapering off dex but can't get below 0.25 mg. any tapering tips to awaken adrenals?

3 doctors weighed in across 2 answers
Dr. Michael Dugan answered

Specializes in Hematology

After long term: Use of corticosteroids the only trick is to go very slow on the last portion of the taper, and to have testing to make sure you make cortisol before stopping all together.

Answered 2/27/2013

5.3k views

Thank

Slowly: An endocrinologist can assist you with this, but tapering off of long term steroids in the setting of adrenal insufficiency may take several months. Hopefully there will be fewer patients exposed to long term steroids in the future.

Dr Akinjagunla agreed

Answered 4/20/2015

2.9k views

Thank

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