Any anti-depressant conducive with thyroid problems?

[cc120]

Recently discovering that my long term (20 years) use of anti-depressants, ie: seroxat; peroxitine; fluexotone have had an adverse reaction on my thyroid function, which anti-depressants, medical or alternative can members recommend?

[shaws Administrator]

Liothyronine also known as T3 can also be used as anti-depressant. It is the Active thyroid gland hormone that all our cells require in order to function. Levothyroxine, T4, should convert to enough T3 but sometimes we need the addition of some T3.

voices.yahoo.com/depression...

ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/164...

[cc120 in reply to shaws]

Thank you shaws, can Liothyronine be bought over the counter or needs a prescription? someone recommended Sertraline but read people have a lot of side-effects when starting until the serotonin reaches the correct levels.

Also, are there any views on 5-HTP as an anti-depressant?

[Jow11]

The herb St John's Wort is a natural antidepressant.

[Piedo in reply to Jow11]

I have been told you must not take St John s wort with thyroxine.

[Glynisrose]

Depression is a major symptom of under active thyroid and you should be treated with thyroxine NOT anti-depressants!!

[shaws Administrator]

There is no medical history in your profile, and I looked at a couple of your previous posts. I now gather even although your GP said subclinical he hasn't prescribed thyroid gland medication, i.e. levothyroxine. In the USA with a TSH of 3 you would have been prescribed and it is inhumane not to treat people with clinical symptoms with levothyroxine. That, in itself, may improve your symptoms.

T3 can only be prescribed but you can look at that later on if levo doesn't do the trick. The fact that your TSH is 8 and has risen constantly. If you email [e-mail] and ask for a copy of Dr Toft's answers to questions in Pulse Online article in which he says the following:-

2. I often see patients who have an elevated TSH but normal T4. How should I be managing them?

The combination of a normal serum T4 and raised serum TSH is known as subclinical hypothyroidism. If measured, serum T3 will also be normal. Repeat the thyroid function tests in two or three months in case the abnormality represents a resolving thyroiditis.

But if it persists then antibodies to thyroid peroxidase should be measured. If these are positive – indicative of underlying autoimmune thyroid disease – the patient should be considered to have the mildest form of hypothyroidism.

In the absence of symptoms some would simply recommend annual thyroid function tests until serum TSH is over 10mU/l or symptoms such as tiredness and weight gain develop. But a more pragmatic approach is to recognise that the thyroid failure is likely to become worse and try to nip things in the bud rather than risk loss to follow-up.

Treatment should be started with levothyroxine in a dose sufficient to restore serum TSH to the lower part of its reference range. Levothyroxine in a dose of 75-100µg daily will usually be enough.

If there are no thyroid peroxidase antibodies, levothyroxine should not be started unless serum TSH is consistently greater than 10mU/l. A serum TSH of less than 10mU/l in the absence of antithyroid peroxidase antibodies may simply be that patient’s normal TSH concentration.

*****

Send a copy of the article highlighting the above question to your GP as they don't have time when consulting. The fact that it also says:-

"In the absence of symptoms some would simply recommend annual thyroid function tests until serum TSH is over 10mU/l or symptoms such as tiredness and weight gain develop

But a more pragmatic approach is to recognise that the thyroid failure is likely to become worse and try to nip things in the bud rather than risk loss to follow-up."

**********

Is your GP allowing your health to deteriorate by not prescribing levo?I

Make an appointment (or change your GP)

[cc120 in reply to shaws]

Thank you shaws for this info. I am awaiting results for FT3, Thyroid antibodies; Ferritin; Folate; B12; Vit D3, Calcium and depending on those, will send in a letter clarifying my situation and will attach the above also. After receiving my blood test results over the past 10 years, and seeing that as early as 2007 was diagnosed subclinical hypothyroidism, but wasn't informed by my GP, I decided to try a new GP at the same practice when requesting the above tests. Though he agreed to these tests, he said that the results would probably throw up more questions than answers and probably not lead to trialing or a referral but simply a continued monitoring, be it more frequent than the current annual one recommended by the laboratory.

Also, I just read on another thread:

'The upper ranges for tsh in the uk are 5 if you have antibodies ( you do). And 10 if you don't. The fact that your t4 and t3 is in range just means that your poor failing thyroid is working very very hard, because it is being flogged to death by the tsh. '

healthunlocked.com/thyroidu...

So if I do have antibodies, and he can be convinced of the above fact, might be an easier route to trialing or referral.

[shaws Administrator in reply to cc120]

Yes, it may be an easier route.

[cc120 in reply to shaws]

Thank you.

[cc120 in reply to shaws]

Unfortunately I didn't have antibodies and self medicated with NDT.