My mother, who is eighty-five years old, is affected by limited scleroderma and in the winter months she gets Raynaud's Syndrome in a finger. About ten years ago she was diagnosed with lupus.

Her problem is that every so often she suffers from attacks of pruritus and more or less every year she gets a fever of around 38.5 Celsius. The doctor has suggested increasing her dose of Medrol, from 4 to 16 mg, and after a few days the fever goes away and the symptoms disappear for a while.

For years, during these periods of good health the dose of Medrol was always 4 mg, without interruption, with the conviction that this would limit the attacks of pruritus.

My question is if in these periods we can lower the dose of cortisone and only take it when the fever attack presents itself, since some people have told me that for pruritus an antihistaminic is enough and she would not need cortisone.

P.S. Cortisone has caused dark spots that look like hematomas to appear on her. I would appreciate your opinion.