Thyroid medication free#

The patients were taking levothyroine for more than a year and abnormal pre-treatment thyroid function studies were not clearly established in the medical record. The authors recruited 291 levothyroxine-treated patients from an academic Endocrinology clinic in Athens, Greece in 20. Livadas S et al 2018 Levothyroxine replacement therapy and overuse: a timely diagnostic approach.

Thyroid medication free#

The authors also compared the features of individuals who ultimately had normal thyroid hormone levels off treatment, compared to those who had abnormal levels (high TSH or low free T 4) consistent with ongoing hypothyroidism. The main goal of this study was to determine how often such patients had normal thyroid hormone levels off levothyroxine treatment, suggesting that levothyroxine treatment was no longer needed. Also, while most patients with hypothyroidism require life-long treatment, in some patients the hypothyroidism may resolve. Sometimes patients have been prescribed levothyroxine for a long time, but it is not clear why it was started or if they still need to be taking it. Levothyroxine also has been inappropriately used for treatment of problems that are not related to the thyroid. Other indications for levothyroxine include for decreasing the size of thyroid nodules or of goiter, although this indication has largely been shown to be ineffective. The main indication for levothyroxine is for the treatment of hypothyroidism. Levothyroxine is the synthetic form of thyroxine and is one of the most commonly prescribed medications in the world.

Thyroxine is the main hormone secreted by the thyroid gland.