Posted by Larry Hoover on February 20, 2009, at 20:58:39
In reply to Thanks bleauberry and larry, but...., posted by psyclist on February 18, 2009, at 5:58:55
My understanding is that chronic lithium use causes a gradual and irreversible decline in thyroid function in some individuals. After 30 years exposure, I don't think discontinuation is going to help you much. And what of the loss of mood stabilization that withdrawing from lithium would cause?
Your thyroid tests were about the minimum to get any sense of how that's all working. Usually, free and total T4 together give a sense of how much thyroid binding globulin you have, and at least a free T3 to check for liver conversion. Your borderline low T4 could be augmented towards the upper bound of normal. If your doctor agrees with that assessment, that's a fairly commonplace first intervention. Do you have any symptoms, apart from depression, that might be correlated with hypothyroidism?
Lar
poster:Larry Hoover
thread:879453
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20090213/msgs/881418.html