Diabetes Care | Care of People with Metabolic Problems: Endocrine and Metabolic | Prescribing Thyroxine in Primary Care

Prescribing Thyroxine in Primary Care
Session Overview
Description
This session will discuss the initiation of thyroxine for the management of primary and secondary thyroid failure, together with appropriate recommendations for monitoring stable patients.

This session was reviewed by Khyati Bakhai and last updated in July 2019.

Learning Objectives
By the end of this session you will be able to:

• Compare the common causes of hypothyroidism and their clinical presentation
• Describe how to start thyroxine in newly diagnosed patients, including initial dosing strategies
• Describe the frequency with which thyroid functions need to be monitored during follow up
• Explain the common issues around concordance with thyroxine

Hypothyroidism is a common chronic disorder. About 1.6 million people in the UK are on thyroxine replacement therapy, which is approximately 3% of the population. Prevalence increases significantly with age and women are up to seven times more likely than men to require replacement therapy.

In a newly diagnosed patient with confirmed hypothyroidism, initiation of thyroxine therapy is required with subsequent tailoring of the dose to restore thyroid function tests to normal.

This session discusses the diagnosis of hypothyroidism, its causes and effective treatment with thyroxine.