MANY of your readers may have seen the recent coverage on ITN News at Ten (December 10) regarding the long-term effects of treatment with oral corticosteroids.
Oral corticosteroids, used to treat for example, asthma, skin diseases, rheumatoid arthritis and inflammatory bowel disease, will eventually lead to osteoporosis if doses equal to or exceeding 7.5mg of oral prednisolone per day are used for several months or more.
Corticosteroid treatment is often unavoidable, and in many cases can be life-saving, and it is unsafe to stop treatment suddenly.
But many patients may not have received information and advice on how to reduce its effects on bone.
The National Osteoporosis Society has published a detailed booklet on corticosteroids and bone which addresses the problem of preventing bone loss during long term oral corticosteroid use,
The booklet, Cortisteroids and Bone, £2, is available to patients and GPs by writing to the National Osteoporosis Society, PO Box 10, Radstock, Bath, BA3 3YB.
ROSEMARY ROWE, Press and Publications Manager.
Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.
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