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.

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anonymous · Answer

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