The Relationship between Thyroid Function and Recent History of Suicide Attempt in Patients with Major Depression

Abstract

Background and Objectives: Todays, evaluation of the relationship between thyroid function and some psychiatric diseases have been identified. However, studies on the relationship between thyroid function and suicide attempt are limited. The present study was carried out with the aim of evaluating thyroid function in patients attempting suicide. Methods: In this descriptive analytical study during the years 2011 and 2012, 88 patients with major depression and recent history of suicide attemp and 89 patients with major depression without history of recent suicide, who were hospitalized in the psychiatric ward of Hazrat Rasoul Akram Hospital in Tehran, were included in the study. The studied variables in this research included demographic variables, such as age, gender as well as clinical findings, such as thyroid function tests, including TSH, T3, T4. thyroid function tests were requested for patients when hospitalized with a diagnosis of major depression during the years 2011 and 2012, that these values were extracted from the patients’ medical records. Results: The two groups were matched in terms of age and gender. In patients with recent suicide attempt, 5 (5.6%) cases of clinical hypothyroidism and 6 (6.8%) cases of subclinical hypothyroidism, were reported. In the major depression patients without recent suicide attempt, there were 3 (3.3%) cases of clinical hypothyroidism and 6 (6.7%) cases of subclinical hypothyroidism, and the two groups had no significant difference in terms of the incidence of thyroid disease (p=0.75). Conclusion: According to the results of the present study, lower levels of T3 and T3 to T4 ratio can be one of the factors related to the recent history of suicide in patients with major depression.

Keywords

• hypothyroidism
• depression
• suicide