Depression and T3 Therapy

The depression associated with WTS will frequently respond to antidepressants, sometimes for only two or three months, sometimes longer, and, at times, not at all.  Interestingly, there have been many studies about T3 being used to enhance the effects of antidepressants – sometimes converting non-responders to a particular antidepressant into responders.  It is my feeling that many of these patients’ depression would have responded to T3 therapy alone.  The correction was probably due to the T3 itself and not necessarily because of the enhancement of the antidepressants’ effects.  Thus, the correlation between thyroid hormone (T4 and T3) and depression has been long known.  I have seen many patients with intractable (difficult to treat) depression, having unsatisfactory results to years of antidepressant therapy, who have responded within weeks to proper liothyronine therapy.

One such patient that I have treated developed significant depression approximately 25 years ago.  Since then it has plagued, shaped, and colored her entire life.  It contributed to her getting a divorce and it became so severe and debilitating at one point almost 20 years ago, that it caused her to feel constrained to give up custody of her children, thinking that they might be better cared for by someone else.  The various antidepressants with which she has been treated over the years did help some, but did not provide her with satisfactory improvement.  The complete resolution that came within two weeks of weaning her antidepressant medication and beginning proper T3 therapy, was bittersweet.  Of course, she was extremely pleased to feel normal again and to be able to see clearly that the symptom had a large physical component that predictably correlated with body temperature patterns.  But at the same time, she came to the realization that 25 years of her life had been spent suffering from a debilitating, unrecognized, and easily treated condition.  It was poignant to see her realize that once 25 years have been spent, they are spent.  It’s great that she feels better now, yet it is sad that it has taken 25 years.  Such cases also make one wonder: Do hard times cause depression and a drop in body temperature patterns?  Or, do hard times cause low temperature patterns which can result in depression?

The depressions that come on premenstrually and after the birth of a child (post-partum) deserve special mention.  Although the depression associated with PMS can be transient, it can also be quite severe.  Several days or more per month taken over many years of a person’s life, can add up to a lot of serious depression.  Learning to cope with this periodic depression can sometimes be more difficult, since patients may tend to “drop their guard.”

It is easy to understand a period of depression that occurs post-partum (frequently called baby blues), because the stress of childbirth is the number one cause of Wilson’s Temperature Syndrome.  It is normal for the body to leave the conservation mode and enter into the productivity mode once again.  Commonly, this process may take approximately three months which is usually the amount of time it takes for post-partum depression to resolve.  Unfortunately, it sometimes doesn’t resolve.  After the birth of a baby, the patient’s body temperature can drop, causing severe depression immediately after the birth of the child.  With proper liothyronine treatment, this troublesome symptom can often be easily remedied.