The evolution of neuropsychiatric symptoms during treatment for hyperthyroidism

Abstract

Introduction. The link between the action of thyroid hormones and neurological, cognitive and affective function is well known. The aim of the study is to evaluate the changes of hormone’s value and symptoms at hyperthyroid patients after 6 months and 1 year of treatment. Materials and methods. In our study, we enrolled 80 patients with hyperthyroidism (new cases) and we asked them to fill out a questionnaire three times: first time was when they were into a thyrotoxic state (before the antithyroid drug therapy – ATD) and after that during ATD treatment (when they were into an euthyroid state after 6-12 months of treatment, average 7 months). Results. There is no statistically significant difference between the ages of the study and control groups (p Student’s t -test = 0.207 > 0.005), nor between the distributions according to gender (p Chi square test = 0.827) or area of residence (p Chi square test = 0.820). For HAMD score, there is highly significant differences (p < 0.001) before treatment, a statistically significant difference after 6 months (p Student’s t-test = 0.015 < 0.05), and no statistically significant difference after 1 year. Conclusion. Depression and anxiety were improved following thyroid function normalization in hyperthyroidism.

Keywords

• hyperthyroidism
• depression
• anxiety
• memory loss