Author: chaotic
Posted: Sun Jul 31, 2011 11:13 pm
Hi, yes true I had hypothyroidism before I started suboxone. I probably didn’t use the correct subject headline and I should have been more specific that it’s not just sub that can cause thyroid problems but long term opiate use in general. The 2 doctors I referenced above both specifically said that they know of or have seen thyroid problems devolop in patients with opiate use, including buprenorphine. It’s actually a little more complex than most cases of hypothyroidism, it involves conversion of one thyroid hormone to another, which can throw off standard thyroid blood test results which is what happened with me, therefore I had to be put on a different medication. If someone is using opiates they should have a full thyroid panel checked and not just a TSH (thyroid stimulating hormone) which is often all doctors order to check thyroid function. I had blookwork (TSH) done last year and my levels were high which indicates hypothyroid so the doctor increased my medication but when I had it checked again in January it was even worse despite the medication increase so they increased me again, rechecked in 6 wks and it still wasn’t close to normal. What puzzled the doctor even more was that one of my thyroid hormones levels were high, indicating I had too much thyroid hormone, while my TSH was elevated too, indicating that I didn’t have enough. It was at that point I was sent to a specialist but had talked to my sub doc in the meantime and she told me long term opiate use can cause thyroid disorders. The specialist explained it all to me quite throuroughly how I probably wasn’t convering one hormone to another, put me on another hormone replacement and now I’m normal. This doesn’t only happen with people who already have hypothyroid but can happen with long term opiate users and other drugs can cause it as well. I’m having trouble finding the one study I read but found another one. There really isn’t a lot of information, my general practitioner had no clue. Sorry, for the long post but felt I needed to explain more.
http://nahypothyroidism.org/deiodinases/
scroll down to pain section
