A client who has been taking high-dose corticosteroid therapy for 1 month to treat a severe inflammatory condition, which has now resolved, asks the nurse why she needs to continue tak-ing corticosteroids. Which is the nurse's best response?
a. "It is possible for the inflammation to re-cur if you stop the drugs."
b. "Once you start corticosteroids, you have to be weaned off them."
c. "You must decrease the dose slowly so your hormones will begin to work again."
d. "The drug suppresses your immune sys-tem, which needs to be built back up."
B
One of the most common causes of adrenal insufficiency, a life-threatening problem, is the sud-den cessation of long-term, high-dose corticosteroid therapy. This therapy suppresses the hypo-thalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis and must be withdrawn gradually to allow for pituitary produc-tion of adrenocorticotropic hormone (ACTH) and adrenal production of cortisol.
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