Corticosteroids are potent pharmacological agents. Depending on the dose, they have an anti-inflammatory effect, immunosuppressive effect, anti-edema effect, or cytotoxic effect versus neoplastic lymphocytes. Corticosteroids have historically been associated with neurology like a horse and carriage. They have therefore widely, almost arbitrarily, been used for a variety of neurological disorders. The questionable efficacy of corticosteroids for most neurological presentations in combination with their unfavourable side effect profile has however resulted in a dramatic decrease of corticosteroid use in veterinary neurology.