hindawi.com/journals/crips/...
Since my own constellation of symptoms seemingly began when I switched to the offending drug, this article seems particularly illuminating.
We have only touched the surface of iatrogenic harms caused by SSRIs.
Leaving here for anyone interested.
Very interesting. However their starting point was not good -‘euthyroid’. I do not trust their measure of this. Subclinical it seems to me could easily be covered by the term euthyroid because of their lack of care in testing and reading of blood tests.
However this does not make the discovery is meaningless. Looking back before my period on fluoxetine, I am certain my thyroid had been acting up for many years. A phrase I often used to medics was “I can’t get off the sofa”. This was translated by them as depression, hence the fluoxetine/Prozac prescription. I was so ill at the time I would have agreed to anything. However my description was accurate, I literally could not get off the sofa. Proper questioning by so-called medics could have elicited better information and therefore my condition/diagnosis could have been better and more quickly considered.
In my case my thyroid situation was not helped in any way. At best Prozac covered up the real situation, allowing it to worsen and prevented treatment for hypothyroidism for another fifteen years. So it really was at least contributory to my worsening state, if, in my case not likely causal.
However this is good information perhaps to discourage doctors from prescribing anti-depressants before testing for thyroid issues, hopefully post thyroid diagnosis too. Just like statins, there will be many situations where it’s entirely inappropriate.
Thank you for finding this research.
P.S. Did you watch the Panorama episode re: anti-depressants. If not watch it on catch up. You will be pretty familiar with what was said. Even psychiatrists and psychologists have taken the stuff to their detriment. So much, as with much Big Pharma, has somehow managed to slip through all the ‘checks’. Interesting when even the medics themselves get caught out by their personal prescriptions. And we wonder how our thyroid conditions can’t be treated properly? So many dreadful states of affairs. So much twaddle. So little integrity.
Yes, I watched it and I have been aware of the work of those involved in lifting the lid on antidepressant withdrawal for many years.
The clinical picture is always messy in the absence of blood and other tests and murkier still when antidepressants, other psychotropic, or indeed any active substance are involved. However, I would insist meaningful information is always first gleaned by the patience’s experience and when the experience is a collective, then we have the basis for a correlation that is too hard to ignore. This is especially important as it is not in economic interest of pharmaceutical companies or other beneficiaries to fund studies proving iatrogenic harms. They only make money and have jobs by keeping us unwell.
arTistapple I also agree on your point of subclinical and euthyroid. After all, many are suffering for years with symptoms before a blood test confirms some stupid measure.
I could be wrong here but I also think that anything perceived as women’s problems is dealt with differently by the medical profession. Somehow we are deemed expendable, not worth any real bother. Even men who end up with these problems get caught up in it. Prozac a point in fact. I went through a similar scenario years before when tranquillisers (even worse for my Mother’s generation) were the ‘thing’. No withdrawal guidance etc there either. Cold Turkey. My Mother and Mother in Law were stuck with them until the day they died. No wonder so many of us take our own medication into our own hands. Its ironic when the medics call themselves ‘scientists’ as some poor forumite mentioned the other day about asking questions of her doctor. It seems like there is an awful lot they do not understand (which we come to learn) and there is little sign of change when one of the ‘top’ endos is working about twenty years behind the research remains in post and writing the guidance for every doc in England and Wales. Scary.
You are not wrong. The medical community is not exempt from the global problem of sexism and misogyny in particular. We have not made as much progress as is believed when it comes to women’s health.
I have experienced the younger generation of medical professionals, especially those trained overseas are more susceptible to listening to the patients experience. Obviously, this isn’t the norm yet but it is what I am increasingly finding. So, I am hoping things can only get better.
it could be correlational… I think a hugely surprising amount of people being shoved in antidepressants are actually undiagnosed hypothyroid. That’s certainly what happened to me x
It’s perfectly possible. There are also indications from case studies and research that suggest the drugs are causing the thyroid abnormalities.
Certainly lithium is known to be thyrotoxic too.
Aye. And, carbamazepine (which I used to take also).
Wasn't a type of fluoride once used to suppress thyroid activity ? Big push to re-introduce fluoride into our water - ?
Interesting. But, I don’t know and would love to know more.
An internet search should reveal lots of info. Latest US research reveals the lowering of childrens IQ ....
yes, fluoride is a halogen like iodine, so the body can mistakenly uptake fluoride which damages thyroid function. As well as being in our toothpaste, it’s also in all our tap water as it kills bacteria… so we are all drinking thyroid suppressive chemicals, washing in it, cleaning our clothes in it, watering our plants and possibly crops in it, then brushing our teeth in it. If you go swimming then you’re actually quite literally swimming in it…
ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articl...
Gosh! This is so annoying as there’s no avoiding the amount of things that disrupt the thyroid then and all we can hope to achieve is minimising the risks.
yes… it’s unavoidable at this stage. All the more reason to work on optimizing our replacement 🙂 sadly we don’t live in a world conducive to optimal human health anymore 😔
😒
Not yet added to all water supply - creeping in. On gov.uk about changes being made ....
assets.publishing.service.g...
Looks like 35 out of 305 areas are fluorinated, doesn't seem too bad but as you say... Probably will creep in. I also think fluoride is possibly only one of many bad things in our water and don't even get me started on the pipes...
I don't know about this. The patient had a TSH of 0.4 which is not in line with the average TSH of a euthyroid person (1.5). Maybe she had early stage Hashimoto's that hadn't yet developed into overt hypothyroidism and the depression being treated with SSRIs was an early symptom of that.
Thankyou for posting this. I have long suspected that anti-depressants interfered with thyroid function . Watched the programme on BBC on Wednesday. Taking part was Dr David Healey who used to write occasionally for the Guardian and it was his comments which first led me to suspect as much.
Healy, Read and co. books was some of the ones I first read in this area. And, you are most welcome.
I’m glad I posted as I have learned, well learning through the furom of the many things that interrupt our thyroid. It’s an interesting conundrum if someone was so inclined to work out why some of are susceptible and others are not.
An article of interest re Thyroid issues and Fibromyalgia
Daily Mail article on thyroid treatment being denied
Another alarming article about a possible cause of thyroid and other endocrine illness
More responses on the BMJ 'Bad Medicine: Thyroid Disease' article
A hopeful new article proposing that adding T3 to thyroid treatment is the way to go!
