Treating an MS attack

The content put together below was extracted from different existing websites. I thought there was no purpose in reinventing the wheel.

However, having experienced the costicosteroids treatment described below in a hospital setting, I have to say that it is quite a painful moment to go through. On the plus side, you have to remember that being treated is the best thing that can happen to you and that it will help improve your symptoms.

On the negative side, the hospital, and in particular the neurology departments, are often quite scary, and many people are here in a fairly late stage of the disease. You have to face the truth of the potential long-term consequences, and keep positive. AS a trick, I had brought my Ipad and was watching movies during the whole time. It helped. I did not talk much to the other MS patients present.

Relapses or attacks occur with relapsing-remitting, progressive-relapsing, and sometimes secondary-progressive forms of MS

During a relapse, people with MS will have a temporary worsening or recurrence of existing symptoms and/or the appearance of new symptoms. This typically lasts for a few days to a few months, followed by a complete or partial recovery (remission).

With relapses, inflammation is occurring along the nerves and the myelin.

Less-severe relapses are usually not treated with steroids, so their use may be reserved for more severe flare-ups. When treatment is required, relapses are usually treated with a high-dose course of powerful corticosteroids (a type of steroid) over a period of three to five days. These are given by intravenous (IV) infusion, providing the drug directly into the bloodstream for a quicker response. Administration may be performed in a hospital, infusion center, or sometimes at home. Corticosteroids work by reducing inflammation. While they usually lessen the severity and duration of a relapse, they do not appear to affect the long-term progression of the disease.

An oral steroid (prednisone) may be prescribed after the high-dose treatment to ease off the treatment, tapered over one to two weeks.A