Posted by noa on March 27, 2004, at 10:29:35
In reply to Re: Lithium and thyroid » noa, posted by katia on March 27, 2004, at 2:16:59
Depression, not BP. I have "Double Depression", ie, Recurrent Major Depression and Dysthymia. The ADs had always had some effect, but not enough. Prozac worked for a while, then pooped out. Paxil, same thing. Plus I had a hard time with the SEs. Wellbutrin--couldn't take the tinnitus. Effexor--worked well, but kept having recurrences of major depression. Plus couldn't tolerate higher doses due to SEs. Combo of Effexor and Serzone--better, but still quite dysthymic and still had recuuring major episodes. Somewhere in there, I had started taking cytomel, and then both cytomel and synthroid, BUT not enough, apparently. Then doc tried me on Lithium in addition, which gave me 6 weeks of improving mood, followed suddenly by one of my worst depressions. Had thyroid tested again at that point because in addition to the depression, the other hypothyroid symptoms had gotten much worse all of a sudden, too (extreme fatigue, muscle pain, edema, total cotton-ball-brain, etc.), and sure enough my TSH had gone up. This was due to the lithium. I decided to discontinue lithium and pursue the thyroid angle. Saw great endo who gradually had me raise the synthroid dose until I felt better, bringing my TSH down way lower than any doctor had ever recommended before (0.3). It was then that I felt the ADs began to work. Later, I was able to lower the Effexor dose some, but it's clear to me that I still need both the ADs and the thyroid hormone meds. BTW, the endo told me that had I wanted to continue the lithium, I could have, and we just would have adjusted the thyroid meds accordingly. So if I were BP, I would have done that but with just the depression, not hypomania or mania, I didn't need it, since the ADs and thyroid meds worked for me.
poster:noa
thread:327547
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20040325/msgs/329040.html