‘It is a clinical impression that some patients given oral corticosteroids develop a sense of wellbeing that is 'inappropriate' to improvements in physical health. This has been termed steroid 'euphoria', but unlike steroid-induced psychosis it has not been documented.’ **
It has not all been bad. I have had two unprecedented periods of artistic creativity over the last year which seem to have been an unexpected, but not unwelcome consequence of chemotherapy, particularly steroids such as prednisolone, which has been a significant part of my treatment. I paint frogs and birds and it was striking that during these episodes, I chose the most brightly coloured animals I could find. During the long hours spent at my drawing board, I listened to a lot of old music: mostly Bob Dylan, Mark Knopfler and Tom Petty, who had recently died, augmented by more contemporary suggestions from Jo and Alice.
Carolyn had the brilliant idea of capitalizing on my creativity by mounting an exhibition of my recent and older work to raise money for lymphoma research. My consultants suggested the Julian Starmer-Smith Lymphoma Fund which supports a research fellowship into T-cell lymphoma at Oxford University, and we were delighted to agree. St Hugh’s College most generously offered us their facilities and support, and the exhibition hung for a week in September 2018. The exhibition was a huge success, we sold a lot of cards and prints and raised more money that we thought was possible. Mounting the exhibition was much more work than we imagined it would be and it left us exhausted.
**
** Swinburn, C. R. Wakefield, J. M., Newman, S. P, & Jones, P. W. (1988) Evidence of prednisolone induced mood change ('steroid euphoria') in patients with chronic obstructive airways disease. British Journal of Clinical Pharmacology: 26; 709-713.
