My difficult child just turned 16. He was 8 when we first considered medication for BiPolar (BP). Before prescribing medications the psychiatrist ordered a bunch of labs including thyroid. At that time my son's TSH was, I think, around 7-8. Before agreeing to medications we saw a pediatric endocrinologist who said that all she would do was monitor his thyroid but with no treatment at that time. A second opinion yielded the same. I wasnt satisfied; there are so many people on either side of our family with thyroid issues and they are the ones who seem to have issues including anxiety disorders on my husbands side. I sent an e-mail to Papolos who told me there might be some merit to a thyroid connection and told me I might want to contact Peter Whybrow at UCLA who is the expert on the connection between thyroid and BiPolar (BP) (by the way, Whybrow wrote a great book called A Mood Apart that I would recommend). I contacted Dr. Whybrow who agreed that my sons thyroid issue should be treated. But I couldnt find a doctor who would treat it and we had no choice but to try medications. At some point we trialed Lithium which escalated the thyroid issue to the point that the endo did prescribe thyroid medications. Ive always felt that they helped.
About 4.5 years ago my son participated in an MRI study and as part of the study he had a short neurological exam by a pedi neurologist named Martha Herbert who is an autism researcher (my son does not have an Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD)). I had an interesting conversation with Dr. Herbert and asked if she would see my son as a patient and she agreed. With the help of Dr. Herbert, and later a doctor she suggested, we lowered my sons medications and added supplements. We have continued to lower medications over the years and he is now psychiatric medication free but takes a bunch of supplements and thyroid medications. He has not had a serious rage in 4 years. He is actually absolutely stable and has been these past 4 years except for several months 3 years ago when the endo lowered thyroid medications against my wishes (coincidence?) because his TSH had gone below 1.0 (but above the .3 which is now considered the lowest normal value). She refused to increase the thyroid medication to prior levels despite my sons deep depression so we shopped for a new endo and found one who treats the thyroid issue aggressively. We have had no behavioral or mood issues since.
Im sure some people reading this will not believe that a truly BiPolar (BP) person can find stability with thyroid medications and supplements alone and will insist that my son was never BiPolar (BP). But when he was younger he was diagnosed BPI by at least 4 psychiatrists. He had classic symptoms of what is now being considered EOBD. He was removed from public school in 3rd grade after injuring a teacher. His rages lasted hours and people would get hurt and precious belongings would be destroyed. Teachers in his new school were also injured. I will be forever grateful to Dr. Herbert and other doctors who have been willing to think outside-the-box for my son. His future looks bright.