Mental Disorder and FT4

09-14-2003, 09:31 PM

My wife having a problem in her thyroid and diagnose as Hyperthyroidism.

I was just wondrin wthether this kind of illness affects the Mental Health of a person which is currently what i am experiencing. Sometimes she's normal specially early in the morning then most of the time her mind is on the fly...

Latest Labtest of her as follows:

Free T4: greater than 6.0 ng/dl
TSH: 0.02 uiu/ml

Currently she's taking up Tapazole and Inderal 3x a day.

Please help.....tnx a lot

09-15-2003, 03:51 AM

Yes, being hyperthyroid does affect our personalities. It is merely a symptom of too much thyroid hormone. When the medication lowers the level of circulating thyroid hormone to a normal range and she stabilizes her thyroid levels there, she will feel much better and this symptom should improve greatly.

Hang in there and support her. It is not something that she can control right now.

09-15-2003, 07:45 AM

yes please hang in there for her. Hyperthyroidism can make a person very jittery and anxious. Once on medication, she will become a much better person. Your thyroids have a lot to do with the state of your mind.

09-15-2003, 09:52 PM

I tried everything that i can do to make everything normal in our family, my kids and i are adjusting are daily habit.

Is't normal to see her in an almost crying stage, is this the reason why she cant control crying, and sometimes paranoid.

I almost confine her to Mental Institution because of her condition, but she is different from them, she knew us all by names.

Whenever someone ask about whats wrong with her, i told them that its because of the more hormones produce by the thyroid was the reason for her being mentally disorders.

It was really hard for us to coup up with this but whenever Im seeing her in that condition my hearts freaks-out, i cant stand her in that situation.

She is hyperthyroidism but the doctors that ive ask told me that it is hypothyroidism that affects our mental not the other way around, how true was it anyhow.

Tnx

09-16-2003, 05:19 AM

i dunno what your doctors are thinking; that's not true. the thing is, hyperthyroidism is a lot less common than hypo so they probably had much experience with people who are hyper. all of your hormones in your body have everything to do with the way you behave so i would strongly reccommend her to get on medication for her hyper first and then see how she is. just give her time.

09-16-2003, 10:07 AM

Consider purchasing the Thyroid Solution by Ridha Arem MD. It talks about some of the mental/emotional affects of thyroid disease.

09-16-2003, 04:01 PM

I agree with the comment about the book (Thyroid Solution). I let my husband read the part about what I am feeling like, and I think he finally got that I don't act this way totally on purpose! He's been nicer...

Noa

09-16-2003, 07:07 PM

tnx people for replying my queries..

i just hope our local bookstore here in manila have that kind of book...it could help a lot in determining really whats going on.

i always think that it is the thyroid that affects her mental/behavior changes and not the they phychiatric blah blah that psychiatrist talking about.

i really have to find out which is which and which is not.

so it does happen to you guys that there are things that you did when hyperattacks that you cant remember what you did? just asking

tnx once again..i appreciate enlightening me about this thyroid disease

09-16-2003, 07:18 PM

i don't understand ... is she on thyroid medication? can someone enlighten me as to what the medication for hypER thyroidism is?

it's a very good book -- i have it ... and my heart goes out to you because it's very difficult to see your spouse become someone else ...

09-16-2003, 07:37 PM

currently her medication was Tapazole and Inderal.

even if she's in twilight zone she could still recognize all of us. Her relatives insisting me to confine my wife to Mental Hospital...but i disagree with because she's not mentally derail as in psychopathic...well from my point of view..maybe because i keep researching the effects of her hyperthyroidism.

tnx to all

09-16-2003, 10:47 PM

Most often, the psych hospital is for those who are a threat to themselves or others, so I think that's what you need to determine for your wife. Is she in danger of hurting herself (or anyone else)? Unfortunately, even if they do tests for thyroid (usually only TSH for a psych admit), they generally will either avoid giving her meds (unless she is already taking them...and they will continue the prescription) or prescribe antidepressant-type drugs. So, you're probably not going to find any medical answers by committing her...unless Manila does things a lot differently from how they are done in the states.

Is your wife taking any medications now? I have taken a variety of things that my body couldn't metabolize, and I would end up with some wild symptoms...including extreme depression, hallucinations/delusions, and other physical symptoms. You might want to check side/adverse effects of anything she is taking in order to determine if the meds could be part of the problem. In my case, it is thought that hypothyroid caused the problems with the drug metabolism...

I'm editing b/c I noticed later what meds she's taking. Is that all? What about over-the-counter or herbal stuff? Have these symptoms started or gotten worse since she began taking the meds? You may want to consider taking her to the doctor (or the emergency department if you can't get in soon) to have her thyroid levels (and possibly blood chemistry and electrolytes) checked because there are numerous (medical) reasons she could be acting this way...

Hope that helps some.

Noa

[This message has been edited by Noa24 (edited 09-17-2003).]

09-17-2003, 01:09 AM

Latest Labtest of her as follows as of July 2003

Free T4: greater than 6.0 ng/dl
TSH: 0.02 uiu/ml

09-17-2003, 01:26 AM

I am sorry that you and your family are going through this. I understand what that's like. I believe I went hyperthyroid for a while before I went hypo. I was crying almost ALL the time-even at work. I would start crying for no reason. I had to take Xanax for depression.
Let me tell you about someone I know who seems to be going through something similar to your wife. This lady would go out somewhere and not know where she was or how she got there. Sometimes, she wouldn't recognise people she knew for years. She had all the classic symptoms of hyperthyroidism. Once she was diagnosed and on the right amount of medication for a while, her episodes of forgetfulness subsided. She's still not perfect but she's much better than she was a year ago.
Your wife is not quite herself now. But as long as she gets the right treatment, she'll be back. You seem like you are a very patient man. That's good. She needs you now more than ever to be there for her.
I wish you and your family the best.
Barb

09-17-2003, 02:25 AM

Quote "This lady would go out somewhere and not know where she was or how she got there." Unquote

Did you know that this situation happened to my wife. My youngest daughter (6 yrs) ask her to go out Friday night and didnt come back. I was stupid to fall sleep and woke up around 5am and to my surprised they didnt came home. I called her cellphone but it keeps on ringing and around 9am someone called using her cellphone and found out that my wife was there in location she doesnt knew or even she knew. I was told that my wife stares blankly and doesnt talk at all.

That incident is before she was confined to hospital for 3 days. Right now she stays at home too bad that i dont have anybody to look at her in the morning while my kids are in the school, so i have to locked our gates for her not to leave the house. Even if the time that she's "normal" i dont any choice but locked the gate or else i will loose her. The best thing that i can do while i was stil there is to feed her before going to work. Though it was too tiring on my behalf but this was God given and have to live with it.

From my point of view "psych" doctor cant help her because the problem is within her thyroid...currently i'm looking for the best medicine possible to regain her normalsy.

Tnx a lot...before i was facing blankly with what the hell is this illness but now at least i knew she's not alone

cheers to evrybody....Tnx to God...at least we're still surviving though in different way

09-17-2003, 06:20 AM

It sounds as if your wife is undertreated or the drug treatment isn't working for her hyperthyroid condition. Here's a reference to a study regarding psychiatric illness and its connection to hyperT that I found on the Net:
[from publication] Am Fam Physician 1983 Feb;27(2):257-60
Psychiatric presentations of hyperthyroidism.
McGaffee J, Lippmann S, Barnes MA.

"Hyperthyroidism is often confused with psychiatric illnesses. Undiagnosed hyperthyroidism sometimes results in inappropriate use of psychotropic medications. Delay in therapy markedly worsens the prognosis for recovery, but complications can be prevented by early treatment. Prompt recognition of hyperthyroidism through thyroid function screening is good medical practice in the evaluation of patients with psychiatric symptoms."

You clearly care about your wife, and her children need her. It's probably time to find another doctor who will try other treatments for her disease. If the drug treatment isn't working [It doesn't work for everyone], it might be time to consider RAI treatment or surgical removal for the overactive gland. By all means, listen to your gut feeling that thyroid is behind her behavior. Don't give up on her or agree to mental confinement unless that is definitely ruled out first.

[This message has been edited by midwest1 (edited 09-17-2003).]

Mental Disorder and FT4

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