Clinical Scenario

You are on an internal medicine rotation where you frequently encounter patients hospitalized due to community-acquired pneumonia (CAP). On your service today is SC, a 72-year-old male. His symptoms of fever, cough, and sputum production started 5 days ago and he presented to the emergency department this morning. His chest X-ray showed a new infiltrate and he was started empirically on amoxicillin plus clavulanic acid until the sputum culture identifies a specific pathogen. During rounds, the attending physician asks you to investigate using prednisone in his case. He asks you to report the following information regarding prednisone: what therapeutic class it belongs to, available strengths and dosage forms, the recommended treatment dose for CAP, and associated adverse effects. The physician would also like you to determine whether prednisone shortens the amount of time it takes to reach clinical stability in patients hospitalized with CAP.