Prednisone is a glucocorticoid medication mostly used to suppress the immune system and decrease inflammation in conditions such as asthma, COPD, and rheumatologic diseases.

[3] Common side effects may include cataracts, bone loss, easy bruising, muscle weakness, and thrush.

[3] Other side effects include weight gain, swelling, high blood sugar, increased risk of infection, and psychosis.

[10][11] Prednisone is used for many different autoimmune diseases and inflammatory conditions, including asthma, gout, COPD, CIDP, rheumatic disorders, allergic disorders, ulcerative colitis and Crohn's disease, granulomatosis with polyangiitis, adrenocortical insufficiency, hypercalcemia due to cancer, thyroiditis, laryngitis, severe tuberculosis, hives, eczema, lipid pneumonitis, pericarditis, multiple sclerosis, nephrotic syndrome, sarcoidosis, to relieve the effects of shingles, lupus, myasthenia gravis, poison oak exposure, Ménière's disease, autoimmune hepatitis, giant cell arteritis, the Herxheimer reaction that is common during the treatment of syphilis, Duchenne muscular dystrophy, uveitis, and as part of a drug regimen to prevent rejection after organ transplant.

[17][18][19][20][21][22] In terms of the mechanism of action for this purpose: prednisone, a glucocorticoid, can improve renal responsiveness to atrial natriuretic peptide by increasing the density of natriuretic peptide receptor type A in the renal inner medullary collecting duct, thereby inducing a potent diuresis.

[28] Long-term steroids can also increase the risk of osteoporosis, but research has found that few of these people were taking medications to protect bones.

Eventually, this may cause the body to temporarily lose the ability to manufacture natural corticosteroids (especially cortisol), which results in dependence on prednisone.

This weaning process may be over a few days if the course of prednisone is short but may take weeks or months[33] if the patient had been on long-term treatment.

Prednisone may start to result in the suppression of the hypothalamic–pituitary–adrenal (HPA) axis if used at doses 7–10 mg or higher for several weeks.

If this occurs the patient should be tapered off prednisone slowly to give the adrenal gland enough time to regain its function and endogenous production of steroids.

[40][41] The pharmaceutical industry uses prednisone tablets for the calibration of dissolution testing equipment according to the United States Pharmacopeia (USP).

[48] Prednisone and prednisolone were introduced in 1955 by Schering and Upjohn, under the brand names Meticorten[49] and Delta-Cortef,[50] respectively.