Clinical and endocrine side-effects of methylprednisolone acetate as used in hay-fever

Abstract

Eight patients were treated with two 80-mg. doses of methylprednisolone acetate (Depo-Medrone), given at an interval of two weeks. Pituitary-adrenal function was assessed before, during, and after treatment.Plasma cortisol levels were depressed maximally 72 hours after each injection of methylprednisolone acetate, and then gradually returned to normal. The adrenocortical response to administered corticotrophin was similarly affected; in seven patients normal values were again recorded three weeks after the second injection of methylprednisolone acetate. One patient whose adrenal function had returned to normal still showed some degree of pituitary suppression eight weeks after his second injection. Several side-effects were noted, and clinically the patients fared less well than a larger series studied during the previous year.