Question

When patients who are receiving glucocorticoid therapy (for example, with prednisone) need to stop taking it, the doctor will prescribe a series of doses of tapering size to gradually lower the dose rather than suddenly stop it. Explain this dosage strategy in terms of the negative feedback control of cortisol secretion.

Answer 1

steroid treatmet for longer than 10 days (as customary) is supposed to suppress the HPA axis - hypothalamus-pituitary-adrenal. in order to avoid an addisonian crisis (which is a central adrenal deficiency) the tapering strategy allows for the gradual reactivation of the HPA axis.
shorter GC courses dont need such tapering strategy