T3 medication for treatment resistant depression

[sobs1962]

Hi all, has anyone had any experience of being prescribed T3 for treatment resistant depression as my psychiatrist has said I have major depressive disorder and it appears to be treatment resistant but having discussed the possibility of being prescribed Triiodothyronine, he said he had no experience of this and would want to discuss it with my GP and endo. I am currently being under medicated on 75mcg of levo and having to resort to paying for a private blood test to change their minds about my dose. Have stopped taking b complex supplement for a week now and no levo for 24 hours before taking blood test tomorrow.

Hopefully blood tests will show I need more levo but obviously that doesn't mean my depression will improve and as I have an extremely low body temperature( 34.4 in May and nurse said that is NORMAL) I know I'm not converting but will anyone actually listen or take action( I will be surprised if they do) and it's starting to feel like there's no hope for me and the millions like me.

[humanbean]

has anyone had any experience of being prescribed T3 for treatment resistant depression

I am aware that this can happen according to the literature, but I can't recall a single person on this forum who has ever mentioned being prescribed T3 for depression in real life.

I've copied over your Thyroid Function Test results from another of your posts and re-ordered them into date order. Posting them with all the Free T4 results grouped together, and all the Free T3 results grouped together etc, is very difficult for people to take in.

.

03/02/20 Free T3 3.6pmol/L (3.5 - 6.5pmol/L) Normal 3% of the way through the range

.

15/05/20 Free T3 6.5pmol/L (3.5 - 6.5pmol/L) Normal Top of range

.

26/05/20 TSH 0.12mu/L (0.35 - 5.50mu/L) Abnormal Below range but okay

26/05/20 Free T4 level 10.6pmol/L (10.0 - 20.0) Normal 6% of the way through the range

.

19/08/20 TSH 96mu/L (0.35 - 5.50mu/L) Abnormal Way above range

19/08/20 Free T4 level 4.6pmol/L (10.0 - 20.0) Abnormal Way below range

19/08/20 Free T3 2.00pmol/L (3.5 - 6.5pmol/L) Abnormal Way below range

.

02/10/20 TSH 15mu/L (0.35 - 5.50mu/L) Abnormal Way above range

02/10/20 Free T4 level 16.0pmol/L (10.0 - 20.0) Normal 60% of the way through the range

.

The constant swings of your results from very low to very high and back again are mind-boggling. No wonder you're depressed and feel like crap.

Can you tell us for each set of results what dose of Levo you were taking and how long you'd been on it? Did I read that you'd taken yourself off Levo? That wasn't a good idea. The results from 19th August show that your thyroid has failed, and you were in danger of going into myxedema coma if you'd had those results for very long, and that condition is a medical emergency and can be fatal.

Note that myxedema coma is a slight misnomer - sufferers aren't always in a coma. The condition is also known as myxedema crisis.

webmd.com/a-to-z-guides/myx...

[sobs1962 in reply to humanbean]

Thanks for your reply, yes, I did stop taking my levo for about 8 weeks but only because they had me on 25mcg dose and that wasn't going to do anything at all,so thought I might as well stop taking them. Not a wise decision but when they saw my results from 15th May,they panicked and thought my hypo was going hyper which is extremely rare but was caused by me coming off Propranolol too quickly or a Hashimotos flare. It's a waste of time trying to convince them about these flares as they're so brain washed about the dangers of hyperthyroidism they don't know how it really works. My dose was increased to 75mcg which I'm currently on but as TSH is so high is clearly not enough but because my T4 level was 16 (10.0 - 20.0) on 2nd October,apparently I'm fine. Found out that biotin affects thyroid blood results and so have stopped taking b complex for a week and will do blood test tomorrow. Hopefully the blood test will be a more accurate picture of my levels and then I just have to try to convince them to increase the dosage.

Wish me luck,trying to convince them to increase the levo,as I know I'm going to need it.

[humanbean in reply to sobs1962]

My dose was increased to 75mcg which I'm currently on but as TSH is so high is clearly not enough but because my T4 level was 16 (10.0 - 20.0) on 2nd October,apparently I'm fine.

Patients can't win can they?

If a doctor did just a TSH test and got a result of 15 he would raise your dose of Levo. But since they did a Free T4 as well they've decided to just ignore your TSH because its in their interests to do so.

But if the results were TSH = 0.2 and Free T4 was 16 they'd probably cut your dose quite dramatically.

Good luck with your next round of testing.

[sobs1962 in reply to humanbean]

Thanks for that, really appreciate everyone's support.

[McPammy]

Have you had the DIO2 gene test through Regenerus Laboratories. If positive you’ll have a faulty gene converting T4 to active T3. I have this faulty gene. My younger sister has psychiatric issues and severe depression. It would be worth doing the gene test. I have read that only two Drs can prescribe T3 and they are endocrinologists or psychiatrists. So it does sound promising that T3 could aid your depression. I’m on T3 and I have noticed that it has lifted my mood amongst other physical benefits.

[sobs1962 in reply to McPammy]

Have looked at this but says it's only for people who have no practitioner so that rules me out and as my GP and an endo are involved with my thyroid,not that they're much good as they're only interested in blood test results and nothing else.

[McPammy in reply to sobs1962]

Where it asks for practitioner you put Thyroid UK. I did this with advise from an administrator on here. If you request the test plus a trained person to call you to interpret the report then your GP nor Endocrinologist will be included in the test result, only if you print it off and hand it to them, then request if positive to be scanned onto your NHS file. I did this. Now the NHS prescribe me T3.

[sobs1962 in reply to McPammy]

Well I need to save the money up first as I am not working because of my health problems and currently on benefits but would like to think both GP and endo will take notice if I do have the test done and give them the results.