You may be referred to a physiotherapist, who can advise you on a manageable exercise programme to maintain muscle strength. Speech and language therapy may be needed if you have swallowing difficulties.

Medication
The main drug treatment for myositis is steroid medication, which can include:
-- steroid creams for the affected areas of skin in dermatomyositis
-- higher doses of steroid tablets if there is severe muscle weakness

High doses of steroids can cause side effects such as weight gain, high blood pressure, diabetes, cataracts and osteoporosis. Learn more about the side effects of steroid medication.

Doctors may prescribe an additional medication that suppresses the immune system, such as azathioprine, methotrexate or cyclophosphamide. These are slow to act, but in the long term may allow you to reduce the dose of steroids and therefore reduce the risk of their side effects.

Intravenous immunoglobulin therapy may be needed in very severe cases of myositis if you have severe muscle weakness causing life-threatening breathing or swallowing problems.

It involves having an injection of normal antibodies from donated blood. This temporarily changes the way your immune system operates.
Intravenous immunoglobulin therapy can produce a rapid improvement in the symptoms of myositis, but these drugs are very expensive and the benefits usually only last a few weeks.