Levothyroxine overdose in a hypothyroid patient with adjustment disorder: A case report

Increasing your thyroid dose also puts excess strain both on your bone density and on your heart tissue. The more thyroid hormone you have the higher your metabolism will be, the more fat you will burn at rest, and the more energy you will have. If you are truly taking too much then you will most likely also see some changes in your lab tests. Patients most frequently are treated on an outpatient basis if good follow-up can be guaranteed and psychiatric evaluation is not required.

Levothyroxine is a prescription medication that is used to treat hypothyroidism (underactive thyroid gland). Levothyroxine works by mimicking the activity of the natural hormone that is normally generated by the thyroid gland. Levothyroxine is a medication that is generally taken for life to maintain normal thyroid function. Levothyroxine is a type of thyroid hormone replacement drug that is often used to treat hypothyroidism.

The Best Fat Burners For Hypothyroid Patients

The exact opposite is true when your levothyroxine dose is not high enough. One of the first symptoms people experience when their thyroid is off is a general sense of irritability. Chronic thyroxine excess is more likely to cause clinically important thyrotoxicosis, and is particularly concerning in the elderly and those with cardio-respiratory comorbidities. Sometimes, you end up getting too much levothyroxine because of factors that are not directly related to the medication. Switching formulations of levothyroxine—for example, from tablet to gel caps or liquid—can also cause overmedication because your body absorbs some formulations of levothyroxine better than others.

This medicine can cause some serious health issues

Get our printable guide for your next healthcare provider’s appointment to help you ask the right questions. The good news is that in most cases, the side effects and consequences are not severe and should fade on their own over a period of a few days. By adding more complexity to your dosing equation (by skipping other doses) you risk causing more side effects down the road which can confound and confuse you further.

As you do these things (evaluate both your free thyroid hormone levels and your symptoms) you will find your optimal dose. The TSH only gives you information about your pituitary gland (7) and it doesn’t give you information about the absolute levels of free thyroid hormone levels in your body. Thyroid preparations are medicines used to treat thyroid gland disorders. Overdose occurs when someone takes more than the normal or recommended amount of this medicine. Symptoms of thyroid preparation overdose can be the same as symptoms of stimulant medicines. As you lower your dose your symptoms of levothyroxine overdose will subside fairly rapidly.

It’s not unheard of for a person to go to their healthcare provider because they think they need a higher dose of their medication only to find out their symptoms are actually being caused by thyroid overmedication. In some cases, the symptoms and side effects of taking too much levothyroxine are similar to those of hypothyroidism. For example, you may feel more exhausted than usual, achy (as if you have the flu), or jittery and anxious.

Consumption of certain foods and beverages such as soybean flour, cotton seed meal, walnuts, grapefruit juice, coffee, and dietary fiber can decrease the absorption of levothyroxine. These interactions can be avoided if levothyroxine is taken at least 30–60 minutes before consuming any of these foods and beverages. It’s generally safe to drinkalcohol as long as the alcohol is not consumed at the same time as the levothyroxine dose.

Suicide Attempt With Levothyroxine Overdose

• Being overmedicated with thyroid hormone replacement drugs typically is uncomfortable but rarely dangerous.
• Even if your risk is increased for developing these conditions, though, doesn’t mean that you will ALWAYS experience them.
• Propylthiouracil (PTU) might be used for blocking the conversion of T4 to T3 but may have very limited usefulness in the presence of a large load of LT4.
• They can do tests to check your thyroid levels and figure out if you’re being overmedicated.

It’s best not to play chemist when it comes to your medications and instead stick to your regular program as if the change in your dosing didn’t happen. You may feel jittery or anxious for about a week or so, but the side effects should fade rapidly over a few days. In reality, you may find that you need slightly more than 75mcg but less than 100mcg and you might find that synthroid colitis your ideal dose is really closer to 88mcg per day. The good news is that overdose symptoms can be easily solved by adjusting your dose of Synthroid.

• Through my articles, videos, and supplements, I’ve been fortunate enough to help thousands of people take control of their weight, thyroid, and hormones.
• Activated charcoal and hemodialysis have no role in levothyroxine overdose.
• There are a few reasons you could end up taking too much levothyroxine.
• Here, we present a case of levothyroxine overdose in a 69-year-old male with ingestion of 9 mg of levothyroxine.

Symptoms of levothyroxine overdose may vary depending on age, metabolism, etc. There are no specific guidelines for treating levothyroxine poisoning. Here, we present the case of a 69-year-old man with a history of panhypopituitarism, hypertension, and end-stage renal disease who attempted suicide by ingesting 60 tablets of 150 µg levothyroxine (9 mg). Upon presentation to the emergency room, he was asymptomatic despite the free thyroxine level above the range of the assay. During the hospital stay, he developed sinus tachycardia, which was controlled with propranolol.

Cases of adults ingesting overdose levothyroxine are extremely rare, and adults who ingest massive doses of levothyroxine nearly always have mental disorders and other relevant medical histories2. Our case occurred in a woman who presented with severe symptoms of thyrotoxicosis after taking a massive levothyroxine dose. As she took the medication after mental stimulation, it may have been related to her history of depression. Therapeutic recommendations are made based only in the review of the available literature concerning a relatively large number of patients, most of them children. Acute levothyroxine overdose is much more common in children compared to adolescents and adults. Therapeutic options are related to the time elapsed after the ingestion of a large number of tablets of L-thyroxine and the actual beginning of emergency therapy (Table 3).