[Anonymous March 15, 1997 at 9:22 pm Post count: 93172]

#1056556

Greetings! Sevral months ago, I gave an interview for an article about medical causes for depression. This has been published in the March issue of “American Health”. It includes a couple paragraphs about my experiences with finding help for the depression that resulted after I was treated with RAI and kept at “low normal” thyroid levels. It also includes several interesting comments from medical studies which I will summarize: Robert Stern, Ph.D. from Brown University agrees that women who test slightly below normal in thyroid function seem to be more susceptible to episodes of depression. Stern also states that even depressed women with normal thyroid function do not respond to antidepressants unless they are also given thyroid hormone. Interesting, eh?? I look back and it frustrates me that I had to be depressed for so many years and finally had to go to a psychiatrist before any doctor would agree with me that the thyroid and depression were linked. My way of fighting back was to increase my hormone dosage myself. It has helped so very much though self-dosing is NEVER to be recommended. I was close to desparate with struggling against the depression and willing to take most any risk to feel better. Increasing gradually from .125 up to .2mg synthroid has helped me feel *so* much better. Do not let your endo make you feel like a neurotic if your labwork says you are fine, but you still feel awful!!

[Anonymous March 15, 1997 at 9:53 pm Post count: 93172]

#1163738

I’ve been hearing from A LOT of people with GD that regulate themselves…my dentist has GD & he told me adjusts his synthroid intake accordingto the way he feels. Perhaps we should take charge of our own bodies & adjustthe synthroid accordingly (of course not drastically)…I agree with you Debbie.

[Anonymous March 16, 1997 at 12:15 pm Post count: 93172]

#1163739

I think we’re all entitled to have our doctors work with us to find a dose of thyroid replacement that alleviates hypo symptoms and depression. I’d caution strongly against raising the dose on our own. Debbie H. said that she TOLD her doctor she was raising her dose, and asked her to monitor the blood levels. I love that approach, when all else fails.

If we join forces and get away from the doctors who think it’s okay to leave us with symptoms in the “normal” ranges or below, maybe they’ll get the message. I intend to let my former endo know exactly why I’m seeing a new one, when I cancel the appointment set for April. My TSH was 5.5 with a normal range of 0.4-4.0, and he STILL wouldn’t raise my dose!!!

There is a lag between when we take a thyroid replacement pill and when it shows an effect on our bodies. If I upped my dose for the next ten days, I could conceivably be causing myself ten days of hyper, and by then it would be too late to stop it. My body has been jerked around enough, I don’t think that would be helpful. The hyper and hypo symptoms are sometimes similar enough that without a blood test, I myself don’t know which one I’m in. I’ve had periods of fast pulse while hypo, and don’t know what causes it.

If I upped my own dose, when I went to the doc, I’d have to tell him how much I’d been taking so he’d be able to determine from my labs how much to prescribe, and really nothing would change, because if he thought it was too much, he’d CUT the dose!

My new endo upped the dose, and says he’ll raise it again in six weeks if I’m not doing better. If we as patients band together, certainly we can enlighten some of the medical community on these issues.

Dianne N

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