Quality of Life and Mood Disorders in Patients with Hashimoto Thyroiditis

Abstract

Aim: It is well known that hypothyroidism is associated with poorer quality of life. Still, there are more studies nowadays that also report low health-related quality of life (HRQol), more depression, and anxiety in euthyroid Hashimoto thyroiditis (HT). We hypothesized that autoimmunity itself is associated with low HRQoL and a high prevalence of mood disorders in euthyroid HT. Patients and methods: We examined 130 euthyroid patients with HT (90% females) and 111 matched euthyroid, healthy controls. The groups were subdivided per age: 20-49 yrs. and 50 years. We conducted a cross-sectional analysis. We took blood samples for thyroid hormone levels and thyroid autoantibodies. We examined HRQoL via the health questionnaire (SF-36) short-form version 1 and the presence and degree of mood disorders with the Hospital anxiety and depression scale (HADS) questionnaire. Significant associations between variables were examined with ANOVA analysis and partial correlations. Results: Patients were significantly more depressed than control subjects (p 0.001), and have had more anxiousness, but only in the younger group (p 0.05). Quality of life was significantly better in the older control group comparing to patients with Hashimoto (p 0.01). The overall SF-36 score was in a significant negative correlation with antibodies (TPOAb, TgAb). Depression was positively associated with TSH and TPOAb levels. Conclusion:  Our study indicated that euthyroid patients with HT had worse HRQoL and showed more symptoms of anxiety and depression. We also have found that levels of thyroid antibodies were crucial in terms of neuropsychological wellbeing. More studies with longitudinal observations could explain a possible causal relationship.