Posted by BarbaraCat on January 14, 2003, at 12:55:17
In reply to Re: Low Thyroid and lithium - not a good combo, posted by Noa on January 14, 2003, at 3:55:23
Noa,
I was on Armour for years as prescribed by a Naturopath, but was having some anxiety reactions from the T3 spike, although my TSH was normal at around 2.0. Recently I'm talking .112 mg levothyroxine (T4 only) which is what my primary care doc prescribed. I'm not convinced I don't need the T3 as well, but am willing to sit with the straight T4. In the meantime I'm taking thyroid supporting nutrients, like tyrosine. Just recently went off lithium and am trying to deal with the inner turmoil in other ways. From what I've been reading, lithium doesn't always negatively affect thyroid, only if there's already some problem with it.> I had a similar experience.
> I took lithium for about 2 months, to help with refractory depression. It did start to work after about 3 weeks, but by about week six, I started feeling worse--depressed, fatigued, weak, achy, I had edema, etc. etc. I got my TSH done and it had gone up.
> I decided to stop the lithium, and then found a good endocrinologist, after reading up on hypothyroidism. He told me I could have stayed on the lithium if I had wanted to, just upped the dosages of my thyroid meds. At that point, since I had already stopped, I decided to see how I felt after treating the thyroid problem more aggressively, which was his approach at that point. Treating the hypothyroidism is what finally got me to respond decently to the antidepressants. I started to feel better and better.
>
> But I did not have the manic side of things to contend with, as you do. I wonder if there is more that you can do about the thyroid side of things before going off lithium.
>
> Which thyroid meds are you taking?
poster:BarbaraCat
thread:135769
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20030113/msgs/135833.html