Incidence of Psychiatric Morbidities in Drug Naive Hypothyroid Patients: A Case Control Study

Background: Hypothyroidism is one the etiology of emerging psychiatric illness. The present study is an attempt to find out the incidence of psychiatric morbidity in drug-naïve hypothyroid patients and to find the correlation between patient’s sociodemographic variable, symptom duration, varying thyroid profile, subtype of hypothyroidism and psychiatric morbidity. Materials and Methods: This is a case-control study. The sample in this study consists of 75 hypothyroid patient and 75 euthyroid patients from Endocrinology out-patient department, matched for age and sex, after obtaining informed consent. Results: There was no statistical difference between cases and controls, with regard to sociodemographic variables. The psychiatric morbidity in hypothyroid patients is higher than euthyroid population (χ2 =32.9, p=0.001). The incidence and severity of depression (I – χ2=7.29, p=0.004), (severity- χ2 =10.42, p=0.02), anxiety (I- χ2 =3.84, p=0.05), (severity- χ2 =4.81, p=0.03) and cognitive impairment (I- χ2 =10..9, p=0.001), (severity- χ2 =13.04, p=0.001) are higher in hypothyroid patient when compared with controls. But the incidence of Psychosis is not statistically significant between groups. Among hypothyroid patients various parameters like symptom duration, varying thyroid profile and subtype of hypothyroidism did not reveal any significant statistical difference between patients with and without psychiatric morbidity. Conclusion: Incidence and severity of psychiatric morbidity in hypothyroid patients is higher than euthyroid population in our study. Hypothyroidism is one of the reversible etiologies of psychiatry disorder which is most often overlooked. Early diagnosis and treatment of hypothyroidism may alter the course of psychiatric illness and reduce the morbidity of these illnesses among patients.