Synthroid Uses, Dosage & Side Effects

A 2019 study published in Advances in Therapy compared 9,925 adults who consistently used Synthroid to 9,925 adults who switched from Synthroid to a generic. What the researchers found was that people who switched were 15% more likely to have their thyroid hormones fall out of the “normal” range than those who stuck with Synthroid. Once the patient and I have decided that thyroid hormone replacement is necessary, we go over the specific reasons for choosing and writing Synthroid as that replacement therapy. I review with the patients the important issues about how to take the medication, as consistency is really the key message. I talk about the fact that it’s important to take the medication in the same timing and pattern each day, take it on an empty stomach minutes before they eat.

Table 2.

AbbVie is committed to adhering to CGMP and believes in the integrity of its manufacturing process. AbbVie is dedicated to ensuring that all SYNTHROID products are manufactured at the highest standards. One is, I indicate to them that there are certain SYNTHROID programs where the patient can receive additional educational resources that can help them with savings and tips and tools to how to make sure they get the most of their SYNTHROID treatment. Depending on patient circumstances, cost can sometimes be a concern.

Patient Characteristics

All generic levothyroxine products in the United States are independently certified by the USP. As a means of illustration, here is how Synthroid matches up to two of the leading generic levothyroxine products, Levo-T and Levoxyl. There’s another group on the older product of desiccated animal thyroid hormones. It’s basically taking animal thyroids, chemically digesting them, and getting T4 and T3 out of that and turning into a pill. In truth, sometimes people feel fatigued because they have undiscovered sleep apnea and it’s not being treated, or they have insomnia that hasn’t been dealt with, chronic pain, or a whole host of other things that can cause the same symptoms.

Synthroid works best if you take it on an empty stomach, 30 to 60 minutes before breakfast. Follow your doctor’s dosing instructions and try to take the medicine at the same time each day. Follow all directions on your prescription label and read all medication guides or instruction sheets.

We got permission to do a study where we identified the top 10 thyroid support products on the internet. Then we were able to work with our laboratory colleagues to assess their content and see if they contained any thyroid hormone. We’ll break down the evidence surrounding thyroid supplements, discuss the safety concerns tied to these supplements, and explore strategies for guiding your patients toward safer and evidence-based approaches to improving thyroid health. Synthroid is a prescription medicine used to treat hypothyroidism (low thyroid hormone). Levothyroxine is given when your thyroid does not produce enough of this hormone on its own. Mistaken generic users defined as those who reported taking SYNTHROID but did not have “SYNTHROID” embossed on the pill in a national online survey conducted in 2021 of 1908 adults diagnosed with hypothyroidism and currently taking LT4 products.

I would say that you can’t really give tyrosine or iodine and expect the thyroid’s going to make more thyroid hormone if you already have enough thyroid. When we say T4, that has four iodines as part of that molecule; in T3, three iodines. We know iodine is important for thyroid health and thyroid function. Of the 10 supplements, five contained thyroxine (T4), which is one form of thyroid hormone, and nine of the 10 had triiodothyronine (T3), which is the more active of the thyroid hormones. Not only did they contain it, it was in fairly significant dosing.

HYPOTHYROIDISM MEDICATION1,2*

• HCRU and costs were stratified by place of service (inpatient hospitalization, stand-alone emergency department ED visits, outpatient visits and services, and pharmacy dispensing).
• Now, again, I did say that with the high iodine, sometimes they can jazz it up.
• The safety is ensured in part by a certification process overseen by an independent authority called the United States Pharmacopeia (USP).
• I review with the patients the important issues about how to take the medication, as consistency is really the key message.
• I will also say that the pure T4 is not purely physiologic either because it’s primarily more T4, but most people can convert T4 over to T3 appropriately.

Since thyroid hormone occurs naturally in the body, almost anyone can take levothyroxine. However, you may not be able to take this medicine if you have certain medical conditions. Synthroid is also used in patients who need surgery and radioiodine therapy to manage a type of thyroid cancer called well-differentiated thyroid cancer. DAW codes are codes a pharmacy uses when filling your patient’s prescription. DAW-1 indicates that substitution is not allowed, based on the prescriber’s preference, and ensures your patient will receive the treatment you prescribe.

However, changes in quality of life over time and the effects of the initiation of therapy on quality of life have not been done. Thyroid hormone replacement therapy (THRT, generally based on oral levothyroxine (LT4)) is a safe, effective means of treating hypothyroidism 7,8,9,10,11. The clinical objective is to relieve symptoms and then normalize thyroid hormone levels. TSH is considered to be the most sensitive and specific marker of thyroid status 12.

The sometimes conflicting or inconsistent findings might be due to major interstudy differences in designs, patient populations, and control populations. The absence (for ethical reasons) of control (i.e., non-treated) natural synthroid groups of patients newly diagnosed with overt hypothyroidism means that the full effect of LT4 on QoL might be underestimated. Another recent study 16 examined short-term (3 months) goal achievement for a cohort consisting of multiple branded vs. multiple generic levothyroxines using claims data from OptumLabs® and found no significant differences between the cohorts.

However, a number of important questions have yet to be addressed. To the best of our knowledge, QoL in patients with benign thyroid disorders was last reviewed by Watt et al. in 2006 105. The researchers concluded that “impairments … are also frequent in the long term”, i.e., during treatment of hypothyroidism. However, the body of literature on overt hypothyroidism has grown considerably since 2006. The main reasons for excluding publications were (i) the absence of original, quantitative data on QoL, and (ii) the absence of data on patients with hypothyroidism. A total of 129 full-text articles were retrieved; 58 of these met the inclusion criteria and were analyzed.