Abstract

About a quarter of a million people in the UK take continuous treatment with an oral corticosteroid.1 Osteoporosis, which causes 150,000 fractures annually in the UK, is a common complication of long-term corticosteroid therapy2 but few patients receiving continuous oral corticosteroid are given treatment to prevent its development.1 In this article we consider ways of minimising the risk for adults of developing corticosteroid-induced osteoporosis and discuss strategies for its prevention and treatment.