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Suspect depression side effect?

K

Kerze85

Member
Messages
10
Type of diabetes
Treatment type
Tablets (oral)
Hiya
I have type 2 with fair control on metformin. I have been diagnosed with hypothyroids a few month ago and take levothyroxine for it. I might have hight blood pressure but it is not being followed up. I had a baby 10 months ago and lost all friends because... I don't really know to be honest. Because my husband kept saying i am not me anymore and we have so many issues with each other suddenly i just thought lets take one of those mental tests online. It came up as as severely depressed on various different tests. At the beginning of being diagnosed with diabetes 5 years ago the nurse asked if i was depressed as that could be a side effect.
Now, is it actually a side effect of having diabetes, is it delayed since it has been 5 years since diabetes has been diagnosed? Is it more that i cant cope with all the circumstances in my life? Are my hormones just totally out of balance? If anyone had/is in a similar situation, how do you cope? Where did you get help, was it hard to get help? I have just been to GP but for blood tests, so feel really awkward having possibly to go back again.
 
Depression is a common symptom of hypothyroidism. See that your GP doesn't let too long time go between checks/dose corrections. 6-8 weeks if you are lucky, but some GPs want at least 12 weeks. Eight weeks should be enough. Ask for print outs of results and keep some kind of diary with what dose you were on and what symptoms you had or didn't.

Vitamin D deficiency can cause depression too and is very common in us with autoimmune diseases. I supplement with 5000 IU per day during the dark months.
 
Hi,
Depression and diabetes are often linked and it may be that because of other influences the depression is now more obvious. Sometimes we cope with diabetes for a while and then we get to a point where all the constant management and food choices get to us and we feel that it is a burden.

Are your thyroid levels back to normal with the treatment you are receiving? I ask because one of the signs of hypothyroidism is depression.
http://www.nhs.uk/conditions/Thyroid-under-active/Pages/Introduction.aspx

Your baby is only 10 months old and this new lifestyle often affects us more than we are aware of. Sometimes hormones take a while to settle down after giving birth.

If other people are noticing that you are not your usual self then I would urge you to go and seek help from your G.P. Whatever you say is confidential and he will help you. He may order some test to see if he can pinpoint a cause after he has listened to you. You may be offered antidepressants and talking therapies.

You cannot cure depression on your own and it is not as simple as some would believe. People who have never experienced it may sympathise but they do not know how it affects people on a daily basis.
 
Thank you. My thyroxine levels are still too low, just had to increase the meds and the doctor prescribed citalopram because of the episode i had last night. So it could be side effects to diabetes, thyroids, baby and general life circumstances? Lovely...
 
What you can do immediately is to get a bottle of vitamin D capsules and treat yourself with large doses for a week or two, by then will have noticed if it has any effect on you. I noticed a difference after five days.

Also the citalopram will take a week or two or more to kick in. Do you really want to take them? They can work really well but can also be hard to come off.

It gets better, you know. One day soon your thyroid meds will kick in and you will look around and say to yourself: wow, the world is beautiful!

But vitamin D helps a lot, too.
 
Can I just politely point out than any change in meds should be discussed with your own healthcare providers really and although this forum offers great advise, we're not doctors. We are only advising and passing on what may or may not work for us. The same should be said for large quantities of any vitamins. Thanks, Mo
 
I also had depression.
For me the best thing I did was to take vitamin D3.
No citilopram, no depression for almost 2 years now. Mind you I have also changed my thought patterns too.
I am not anal about my diabetes and blood readings anymore, I have made so many new friends and hobbies that I literally keep myself on the go all the time. This has made a huge difference. My lifting of depression has not only been because of Vit D3 but because I totally changed my thoughts.


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I agree with Mo I have high serum calcium and so it would be dangerous for me to take vit D Pleases get a proper blood test before taking high quantities of any supplement
CAROL
 
Thanks totto
After a bit of research i came to a similar conclusion. Will take your advise and get some vitamin D, but probably not in high doses.

I am sure that the depression is due to thyroids issues now because those moods and being diagnosed happened at similar times. If i mention that to the GP will they do a full thyroids bloods?

I have taken the first dose of AD already because i didn't know what else to do. Might i be able to just take it until the next appointment in 3 weeks and then not take it anymore. Sorry if it sounds stupid but i honestly dont know.

Thank you all for your replies.
 
I would not stop the anti depressants because others didnt take them,
It may be worth taking them till you see your gp, i was in a similar predicament yrs and the anti depressants really helped, i would take any supplements without speaking to someone or at least till your thyroid is correct, i suffered thyroiditis with my 2nd child ,then with my 3rd it went totally opposite into thyroid crisis and then fell to nothing which had me in a psychiatric unit, anti d take a couple of week to work usually but plz dont ever stop taking /or start taking anything just because others have advised it
 
Regarding vitamin D there are two or three conditions where you want to be careful with the dose you use, but for the rest 98% or so of us no adverse effects have been found on doses well above 10 000IU per day. The safe upper limit is 4000IU per day. This is the same as 100 µg Many of us will need a lot more than that to get to decent levels. To test is a good idea but GPs can be reluctant and if they do test can be equally reluctant to prescribe proper doses. If you are deficient and so many of us are, particularly us with autoimmune diseases, the common dose of 800IU will make no difference whatsoever.

Regarding ADs is my experience of Citalopram good. When I have been depressed they made a difference and I had no problems when stopping. This is me, we are all different and some people can experience terrible side effects with some ADs. I have been prescribed all kinds of AD when not depressed as a last resort for my GP who was convinced my fatigue and all the rest of my symptoms of hypothyroidism, probably including lack of outer part of eye brows would be cured by this assortment of drugs. Needless to say, I didn't take them.

Kerze, things will be all right again. Hypothyroidism can do terrible things with us but eventually you will feel the benefit of meds although Levo didn't work very well for me but it does for many.
 
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Nice to hear from someone who has got proper care. I, and so many other thyroid sufferers, have been proper wrecks for decades and been prescribed half the pharmacy but not what actually might work.

Or maybe you didn't get proper care as you ended up in a psychiatric unit. You are not alone in this, it happens in both hyper and hypothyroidism.

I have learnt not to trust the medical community but to do my own research. Part of that research has been to listen to other patients who often are a bit more clued up than their GPs and other medical staff. Just look at the dietary advice most diabetics get from HCPs, eat a lot of carbs!
 
I wouldnt advise stopping any AD when prescribed by a GP, but Vit d3 may make a difference.


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Hi Kerze85,
In answer to your question yes they are connected. Stress, Diabetes & Depression are all connected. Please see my story as I answered Crimson clients Mood Swings post. Go and see your Doctor, it's too hard to try and cope on your own especially with a new baby. As for coming off anti depressants I was on them for 5 years and come off them in 6 weeks. A talking group is ok, but see if you can find one that's more constructive - where you're actually doing something, The Project Group worked wonders for me, far better than tablets alone. In fact I believe in it so much, I'm now one of the Directors! But we are only one small group 50 members based in North Shropshire.
Mood swings
Crimsonclient,
 
donnellysdogs said:
I wouldnt advise stopping any AD when prescribed by a GP, but Vit d3 may make a difference.


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Click to expand...
I don't think GPs should be allowed to prescribe ADs. Firstly, ADs are often prescribed without proper evaluation of the patient´s mental state but far too often used to treat tiredness in general. The side effects will still be there, and the problems with stopping the meds. There are millions of hypothyroid patients, mainly women, who are prescribed AD instead of thyroxine. Problem in this case is that the ADs may not work, as the depression or fatigue and inertia without clinical depression is due to lack of thyroid hormones.

Secondly, depression can be a deadly disease and if there is a risk for suicide, this is more likely to happen when the depression related inertia lifts before the mood does after going on AD. So depressed patients with suicidal thoughts should be monitored very closely for the first weeks of treatment.

GPs rarely have enough knowledge of depression.

And when it comes to the question of taking AD or not, I think you as a patient have to decide for yourself. Particularly if these tablets were prescribed by a GP.
 
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Some people here are making you question taking the antidepressants. As someone who has taken them, it sounds like you need them. They do take a little time to work, but you will find that you feel better.

As mentioned above low Vitamin D is implicated in depression, so it wouldn't hurt taking 2000 IU a day as a starter.

If you don't feel well, you need to go back to your GP and keep going back until you get some answers/tests/treatments. After all they get paid very well out of our taxes to treat us - it is their job.
 
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