People are crazy about dexamethasone, because they believe that it saves with a severe course of viral pneumonia. True, people do not suspect that they really go crazy from dexamethasone.
Even seventy years ago, veterinarians said that antibiotics and steroids changed veterinary medicine.
Now people empty the shelves of pharmacies, and perforate their soft spots with the same drugs. Does it not occur to you why this famous saying is attributed to veterinarians and not doctors? This is because animals have simpler brains. They do not show any side effects.
The fact is that in humans, glucocorticoids like dexamethasone very often cause changes in the psyche.
You say that your blood sugar rises from hormones, and your doctor recommends keeping track of your weight. Have you been asked to monitor your mood?
Glucocorticoids affect mood. In 30% of sick people, the mood can jump sharply. This is called hypomania. They feel good, they chat incessantly and sleep very little.
Cool? Not cool! Because it is close to psychosis, that is, insanity. In addition, next to the mania, depression is always hiding. It occurs in about 10% of people taking glucocorticoids. And sometimes they hang themselves from depression.
All this disgrace usually begins in the first 3 days from the start of hormone intake.
Sometimes people really go crazy and end up with psychosis in a psychiatric hospital.
About 1% of people even have so-called steroid dementia, when their head stops working. Then you have to recover for a year.
Now imagine if the effect of glucocorticoids in viral pneumonia is explained by the effect of the drug on mood? Maybe people are not doing so well? Are they just going crazy?
In short, in addition to weight and blood sugar while taking glucocorticoids, one should monitor a sharp jump in mood, frequent speech and insomnia. This is a bad sign. Within one week, you have to complain about this to your doctor and maybe even a psychiatrist.
