T3 17 year study

Liothyronine use in a 17 year observational population-based study - the tears study.

Leese GP, et al. Clin Endocrinol (Oxf). 2016.

Hi guys, could anyone help me out by linking me with this paper? I can only seem to locate the abstract!!

[vocalEK]

You can request the full text directly from the authors on Research Gate. researchgate.net/publicatio...

[Hidden in reply to vocalEK]

Thanks for that! X

[Hidden]

Thanks for posting that, it's a really interesting article. I'm on a trial period of T3 at present and my endocrinologist mentioned this paper and talked to me about the paper finding an association between T3 use and use of antipsychotics. It's only an association not causal so not clear if T3 increases risk of mental health problems or if people with mental health problems ( possibly as an result of hypothyroidism) are more likely to end up on T3. Another confounding factors is that and T3 is used as a treatment for severe depression. Be interested to know if anyone knows more about T3 and mental health link. Also good to see T3 isn't associated with greater risk of being atrial fibrillation.

[SilverAvocado in reply to Hidden]

Having low T3 causes mental health problems, so it's a strange result. It may be that some of these patients were prescribed T3 by psychiatrists to treat mental health problems in the first place, which would explain them having more incidents during the study.

[Angel_of_the_North in reply to SilverAvocado]

Or was their free t3 still too low and GPs insisted that they needed anti-depressants rather than an increase?

[SilverAvocado in reply to Angel_of_the_North]

Overall I'd have imagined the Levothyroxine patients have lower FreeT3s, but its also possible that nearly all the T3 patients were undermedicated - we do know they had TSHs of around 1 which suggests undermedication.

It is likely that the people prescribed T3 are the group of patients who struggle the most with a low freeT3. Its all statistical fiddling, we'd have to see the whole dataset and the medical histories to figure it out.

For Mike77, though, I take T3 and it doesn't alarm me at all to see this result with antipsychotics. There are so many other arguements being well medicated improves mental health.

[Hidden in reply to SilverAvocado]

Hello silver avocado, i totally agree with you that there's always statisticall fiddling that makes it hard to make sense. My message was a bit long and jumbled but the two main points were:

1. My endocrinologist sited this research as a reason for being cautious about prescribing T3 and wanted to let people know that they might also run into this objection in clinics.

2. Totally get this is association not causal link. the

research might show T3 increases risk of mental health problems. Or the research might indicate that the sub set of hypos who need T3 are in some way clinically different to those who need T4 only.

EG do those who need T3 have a variation in their hypothyroidism that includes both a greater burden of mental health symptoms and a requirement for T3. So increased use of mental health medication my be caused by variation in type of hypothyroidism. Love to see research on this.

Also just thought, is there any chance the research hints doctors prescribe more mental health medication to hypothyroid patients who set they still have symptoms? I.e. are you likely to get told you are anxious or deluded and given meds if you insist you still have hypothyroidism symptoms.

Interested in know what people think.

Mike

[SilverAvocado in reply to Hidden]

Yes, unfortunately it doesn't 'show' anything, and needs interpretation. But unfortunately many many studies done about T3 are poorly designed (or maybe, more cynically, designed that way on purpose to discredit T3).

Another possibility to add to your two is that people may be prescribed T3 because they've had a long term history of psychosis, and therefore are more likely to be prescribed anti-psychotics in the future.

[Angel_of_the_North in reply to Hidden]

Corellation is not causation: see here tylervigen.com/old-version.... for some fun (don't eat cheese or you might die from becoming entangled in your bed sheets, and if the US stopped importing oil from Norway, fewer drivers would be killed in collisions with trains. If you ride a motorbike, try to stop people from eating sour cream, as it makes you more like to die in an accident)

[vocalEK in reply to Angel_of_the_North]

But I'm Hungarian. We love sour cream. Too bad my hubby rides a motor bike.

[Hidden in reply to Hidden]

I don’t know a lot, but I am very interested in this too. I know that T3 has been used in treatment refractory depression. My mood definitely is affected by hormonal changes! But I expect there are also genetic and environmental factors at play.

I wonder how it is all linked! It is fascinating really, but I expect there is still a lot of research to be done in this area before it is understood.

[DippyDame]

The brain is very "hungry" for T3.

If T3 is low then the brain will be affected......low mood, confusion, poor memory and so on.

Adding T3 can help with this but clearly we are all different, with different requirements and T3 is only one possible solution.

It worked for me!