Posted by noa on May 17, 2003, at 9:27:27
In reply to Re: cytomel- Bookgurl99, posted by Pfinstegg on May 16, 2003, at 19:38:57
> my endocrinologist thinks that this very low level is what patients with depression need to have
My endo, too.
My pdoc had my TSH tested and had me add cytomel, and later, synthroid, both of which helped. But later on, when I was on lithium, which was working for about 6 weeks and then my depression got worse, I checked my TSH again and it had gone way up again. It was then that I realized that the thyroid aspect of it was key (as opposed to treating my depression as a bipolar spectrum problem). I did a lot of reading and then saw an endo, who diagnosed primary hypothyroidism, and had me increase my synthroid dose until improvement in symptoms leveled off. He kept my cytomel dose the same, only he told me to split it into two because cytomel is shorter acting.
He also told me that patients like me with hypothyroidism and depression often don't get relief from the depression until the thyroid is treated down to a TSH below 1. I leveled the syntrhoid off at a TSH of .3, if I'm remembering correctly (it's been a few years).
poster:noa
thread:226993
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20030514/msgs/227205.html