Posted by Noa on February 27, 2001, at 5:59:57
In reply to Re: Thyroid Question for Noa (and anyone else) » Noa, posted by Pandora on February 26, 2001, at 15:15:43
Yeah, and I just went back and read a bit in Arem's book last night, and he does say that when starting thyroid hormone replacement, you need to test app. every 6 weeks, get the TSH down to between .5 and 2, and be stably at that level for a while before seeing real results. If when you test again, your TSH is still high, then you will know you need a bit more.
I was trying to remember some more of what it was like when I first started---I think I did notice *some* improvement in weeks, but it didn't level off right away. And, as I mentioned before, I was UNDERtreated for a few years, so my depression would creep back in and get worse every once in a while.
Keep in mind that stress also has a role. Ironically, it was partly extreme stress that got me to reevaluate the thyroid problem, because my depression got much worse after a very stressful period of time. It was also lithium that helped prompt the reevaluation, because when I was on lithium for a short time, my thyroid really plummetted and, despite initial improvement on lithium, my depression got worse and I developed more physical symptoms of hypothyroid. BTW, I could have stayed on the lithium and just adjusted the thyroid dose--they aren't incompatible. I just chose not to, because my hunch (correct, I think) was that for me, the thyroid problem was more salient.
When I did get evaluated, and the endo raised my doses of synthroid and cytomel, I started to notice results within weeks, but continued (perhaps continue to see even now) to see improvement for many months.
Good luck.
poster:Noa
thread:54825
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20010221/msgs/54966.html