My local doctor says people suffers from depression will think they have thyroid problem etc.

[hkmuffin]

They had so many cases that the patient appearantly with a typical depressed face or things like affective disorders. They come to the clinic and says they may suffer from thyroid problem, worms inside their body, cancers etc. The most ridicous point is why the symptoms improved with levothyroxine is that because it does boost your metabolism so you feel little better. I also mentioned the same to my doctor, she said many people are being normal even they are hypothyroid. And she thinks I am simply abusing levothyroxine to feel better.

Yes what she said may be correct. Because everytime when I do some exercise/doing some enjoying thing I started not feeling bad but soon I will come back to the depressed zone again after the effect goes away. Eventually I gave myself with another option in my life is using SSRI. I basically tried all SSRI and sertraline is the one that gave me almost no side effect. Then I stopped my madness about thyroid.

When we treat disease, we do not what actually happened in your body or even your doctor doesn't know much about you as well. What doctor can do is simply following trained medical procedure and find out what is happening. Of course some doctor is more friendly because they are more experienced about what patient is actually on his mind and they may give a option that closer to what your mind think.

Hope this help.

[greygoose]

I could say a lot about this, but I will confine myself to saying that nobody - NOBODY - has ever, or will ever, suffer from antidepressant deficiency. But thyroid hormone deficiency is a real thing and very, very common.

[Andyb1205]

The fact is that there’s peer reviewed science on the use of thyroid hormones, including T3, as treatment for mental illness from depression to bipolar. It’s not the boost in metabolism but effect on the brain itself that results in feeling mentally better. These patients can be euthyroid or have undiagnosed hypothyroidism.

Here’s one paper that comes to mind. From the conclusion:

“It is an irony of current psychiatric practice that some of the most common augmentation strategies in depression are also those with the least controlled evidence. Despite the extensive database supporting the use of adjunctive lithium or thyroid hormone in refractory depression, these approaches are not the most favoured by practitioners. The popularity of bupropion, psychostimulants, atypical antipsychotics, modafinil, buspirone, lamotrigine, oestro- gen and mifepristone as augmentors is supported by limited open and controlled evidence, but is not yet fully substantiated by ran- domized, controlled studies. The use of adjunctive modafinil, buspirone, lamotrigine, oestrogen and mifepristone is supported, to some degree, by preliminary evidence; however, more double- blind, randomized, placebo-controlled evidence is needed before these agents can be confidently recommended as augmentors in unipolar major depression. The use of herbal and dietary agents as augmentors is also an area in great need of controlled research. In the meantime, when managing refractory major depression, clinicians should first consider the best-studied augmenting agents.”

citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewd...

[hkmuffin in reply to Andyb1205]

I also read that paper. Same for me years ago, keep search on Internet what is being possible. But many doctor do not give thyroid hormone for no reason even there is such research exist. They prefer following medical procedure.

[Andyb1205 in reply to hkmuffin]

That is the crux of the problem today, the gap between medical practice - where guidelines are by their very nature conservative and prone to being outdated - and the science. And there is no field more outdated in medicine than the importance of thyroid hormones.

[Andyb1205]

It would be interesting to know what your thyroid function test results were when you were given a trial of levothyroxine.

[hkmuffin in reply to Andyb1205]

Without using any thyroid medicine I am at the top boundary of thyroid level. When using it goes beyond boundary. Also it makes me suffer from sleeping problem etc.

[Andyb1205 in reply to hkmuffin]

Have you only tested the TSH or also the Free T4, Free T3, and thyroid antibodies? Those would help give a fuller picture though barely in range TSH is itself suspect.

[hkmuffin in reply to Andyb1205]

my TSH is always very low, but my Free T4 and Free T3 is normal.

[Marz in reply to hkmuffin]

Normal is an opinion and NOT a result. Do you have the actual results with ranges ?

[Angel_of_the_North]

I'd say "Prove it". Show me a blood test that shows I've got depression and one that also shows I've got optimal thyroid hormones at the same time. And at least two (repeatable) studies that show the same thing. I'd also accuse him of wanting the extra funding points for anti-depressants more than improving my health. no one really knows how SSRIs work. Most studies were "cooked" and often they perform no better than a placebo, and I'd rather not risk killing myself or anyone else. But I'm glad they work for you. I remember reading somewhere that they can increase t3 slightly. Exercise increase endorphins (so does stabbing yourself with a pin, but I don't recommend that), which is why you feel better, but it also depletes T3, which makes you feel worse later. You may not have a thyroid problem, but having not seen any of your tests, it's impossible to tell.