hello,should I take both antidepressants and levothyroxine?

[pauline]

desc

[helvella Administrator Thyroid UK]

Pauline,

Please be aware that I write from what I have read - not personal experience. Many papers have been written which discuss the issues. My take on it is this:

If you are suffering depression due to low thyroid hormone levels, no amount of anti-depressant medication will really help. Hence the term 'refractory depression' which is widely used in these papers to describe depression that is not helped by anti-depressants (or other treatments such as talking therapies).

Thyroid hormones have been identified as helping anti-depressants to have their effects in a shorter period than just the anti-depressants. But to me it isn't clear if that is a general phenomenon or one that only really applies to people who are at least a little hypothyroid.

But I cannot possibly say that you (or anyone else) should rely on thyroid hormones alone and totally shun anti-depressants. Maybe there are times when anti-depressants are appropriate?

Just in case I am jumping to conclusions, there can be psychological/psychiatric issues associated with both hypothyroidism and with Graves.

ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/206...

All the best

Rod

[pauline in reply to helvella]

Thank you very much for your response to my question,it is a difficult one to try and work out ie. am I depressed or suffering depression due to low thyroid.

[Julia]

Hello Pauline

I have been taking Levothyroxine - 75mg daily for 5 years now.

Two years ago I was prescribed antidepressants as I was very depressed & suffering panic attacks & stress (mainly due to work and past issues in my personal life). It didnt do me any harm (only 3 months of taking) and gradualy came off the antidepressants by taking every other day then stopped altogether, fortunatly I have not felt the need to go back to doctors, of course I have my bad few days but nothing like then. I am aware that there may come a time when I might have to go back to doctors if things were to become worse and I would not hesitate to use antidepressants again if need be, if used sensibly & responsibly to get you over the worse then I believe it helps, before I was diagnosed with under-active Thyroid I wouldn't have dreamed of using antidepressants, but after reading books etc on the subject it does not worry me any more.

Take care, Julie x

[pauline in reply to Julia]

Hi julie thank you for your response,what you say seems to ring true for me,I was on antidepressants and 3 months ago found out i had under-active thyroid,I was seeing a counsellor and and felt he gave up on me because of hypothyroidism. Because i felt better i gradually gave up antidepressants but had more blood tests and my GP said to stay on levothyroxine and antidepressants but I felt it was the levothyroxine rather than the antidepressants that helped me.So im going to try just the levothyroxine for 3 months.

Interesting how counsellors dont have a clue...

Thanks againxx