Levothyroxine: Uses, Dosage, Side Effects

Levothyroxine: Uses, Dosage, Side Effects

James V. Hennessey is affiliated with Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Boston, MA, and was synthroid carbohydrates under contract with AbbVie, Inc., to provide consulting services to the study. MG, BN, LW contributed to the design of the study; collected, analyzed, and interpreted the data; and drafted the manuscript. AB, RE, YC, JH contributed to the design of the study; interpreted the data; and provided critical revisions of the manuscript. Researchers only accessed data in the format of a limited data set for which a data use agreement was in place with the covered entities in compliance with the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) Privacy Rule. An Institutional Review Board did not review the study since only this limited data set was accessed. It is very important that your doctor check the progress of you or your child at regular visits.

Controversies About Treatment Other Than Levothyroxine

Remember, keep this and all other medicines out of the reach of children, never share your medicines with others, and use levothyroxine only for the indication prescribed. Follow all directions on your prescription label and read all medication guides or instruction sheets. Taking more than your recommended dose will not make this medicine more effective, and may cause serious side effects. Eltroxin is used for hashimoto’s disease, hypothyroidism, after thyroid removal, myxedema coma … Unithroid is used for hashimoto’s disease, hypothyroidism, after thyroid removal, myxedema coma … NP Thyroid is used for hashimoto’s disease, hypothyroidism, after thyroid removal, thyroid cancer …

Before taking this medicine

The conversion of T4 to T3 primarily takes place in peripheral tissues like the liver and kidneys, facilitated by enzymes called deiodinases. This conversion is important because T3 can then bind to nuclear receptors inside cells, which affects gene expression and regulates metabolic activity. T3 plays a diverse role, influencing basal metabolic rate, neurological function, and the performance of neuroendocrine tissues, which in turn impacts mood, cognition, and overall health. The Hypothalamic-Pituitary-Thyroid Axis control the production and release of thyroxine. The process begins with the hypothalamus secreting thyrotropin-releasing hormone (TRH), which signals the pituitary gland to release Thyroid Stimulating Hormone (TSH). TSH then stimulates the thyroid gland to produce and release Thyroxine.

Levothyroxine should not be used for the treatment of obesity or for the purpose of losing weight. If taken in large amounts, levothyroxine may cause serious unwanted effects. The amount of medicine that you take depends on the strength of the medicine.

In the fetus and newborn, thyroid hormone is important for the growth and development of all tissues including bones and the brain. In adults, thyroid hormone helps to maintain brain function, food metabolism, and body temperature, among other effects. The symptoms of thyroid deficiency relieved by levothyroxine include slow speech, lack of energy, weight gain, hair loss, dry thick skin and unusual sensitivity to cold.

About Thyronorm 25Mcg Tablet

  • Oral levothyroxine is a synthetic hormone that exerts the same physiologic effect as endogenous T4, thereby maintaining normal T4 levels when a deficiency is present.
  • Thyroxine is actively transported to the various organs where it is converted to triiodothyronine by the activity of the deiodinases 6.
  • Levothyroxine injection is used in adults to treat myxedema coma.
  • This means that it is necessary for clinicians to determine which patients are truly in need of dose adjustment.

A search of the literature was conducted using the PubMed and CENTRAL (Cochrane) databases. Keywords relating to levothyroxine, hypothyroidism, treatment, levothyroxine dose adjustments, levothyroxine and concomitant conditions, levothyroxine and concomitant medications, and combined treatment with levothyroxine and liothyronine versus levothyroxine were searched. Only reviews and articles providing clinical data, particularly the most recent, were considered. Potential articles of interest were identified by title and abstract, and citation lists of articles of interest were used to identify additional literature. This article is based on previously conducted studies and does not contain any studies with animals performed by any of the authors. Some of the studies cited include analyses, or studies with human participants, performed by the authors and completed prior to the initiation of this manuscript.

  • Of these, roughly half persistently followed index therapy (79,140 total; 18,694 Synthroid; 60,446 GL).
  • Our objective was to compare effectiveness (as measured by achievement of thyroid-stimulating hormone TSH levels) and economic outcomes of Synthroid vs. any one of multiple GLs in patients with hypothyroidism.
  • The absence of a warning for any drug or combination thereof, should not be assumed to indicate that the drug or combination is safe, effective, or appropriate for any given patient.
  • Triiodothyronine, the active form of thyroid hormone, is secreted in small amounts by the thyroid but is mainly generated via extrathyroidal conversion of the prohormone thyroxine.
  • If taken in large amounts, levothyroxine may cause serious unwanted effects.

As a person progresses through life, their dose may need to be adjusted because other diseases or medications can affect the dose needed for effective treatment. Pregnancy or weight gain can also affect the dose of levothyroxine needed by the patient, so patients and physicians need to work in partnership to ensure that the treatment is working as well as it can. The goal of this partnership is to maintain normal thyroid hormone levels without the patient experiencing any side effects or negative health consequences of taking too much or too little levothyroxine. Generally, hypothyroidism may be effectively treated via a constant daily dose of levothyroxine, and, for the majority of confirmed aetiologies, this needs to be lifelong. However, in this setting, there appear to be many cases of both levothyroxine over- and under-dosing and it may be that frequent adjustments of a dose are necessary. These adjustments need to be handled with caution and take into account the many contributing factors, as multiple levothyroxine dose adjustments evidently result in a greater burden on healthcare resources 24.

Thyronorm 25Mcg Tablet

There is currently no other treatment for hypothyroidism, other than providing thyroid hormone replacement. Due to its long half-life of about 7 days, in patients in the clinically euthyroid state, levothyroxine is the preferred first-line treatment for primary hypothyroidism and has been the most commonly prescribed treatment since the 1980s 8. Thyronorm is mainly used for the treatment of hypothyroidism (a medical condition where the thyroid gland does not produce enough thyroid hormones for the body’s needs) to replenish deficient thyroxine levels and restore normal thyroid hormone function. Concurrent use of tri/tetracyclic antidepressants and Thyronorm may increase the therapeutic and toxic effects of both drugs, possibly due to increased receptor sensitivity to catecholamines.

If your dose is different, do not change it unless your doctor tells you to do so. Using this medicine with any of the following medicines is usually not recommended, but may be required in some cases. Although certain medicines should not be used together at all, in other cases two different medicines may be used together even if an interaction might occur. In these cases, your doctor may want to change the dose, or other precautions may be necessary. When you are taking this medicine, it is especially important that your healthcare professional know if you are taking any of the medicines listed below. The following interactions have been selected on the basis of their potential significance and are not necessarily all-inclusive.

Some brands of levothyroxine have different dosage instructions and/or recommendations of how soon you need to take them before eating food. Levoxyl treats hypothyroidism (low thyroid hormone) and treats or prevents goiter. This is not a complete list of side effects and others may occur. Thyronorm is generally taken life-long when used to treat hypothyroidism (low thyroid levels) unless the cause is transient. Thyronorm works by providing the thyroid hormone that your thyroid gland would produce if it were working normally. Patients with gastrointestinal or malabsorption disorders may be at a greater risk of developing clinical or subclinical hypothyroidism due to this interaction.