Endocrine Abstracts

Introduction: Hypothyroidism caused by autoimmune thyroiditis (AIT) is a disease that can originate physical, psychological and behavioral symptoms. Quality of life (QoL) and psychopathologial symptoms in thyroid diseases and its relation with thyroid function remains unclear. In hypothyroidism there is a discussion about the normal range of TSH and Free T4 values and in which way its fluctuation influences the patient in its daily activities.

Objective: To analyze the QoL and physical and psychological symptomatology of patients with AIT.

Methods: We analyzed a sample of 145 patients with AIT with a mean age of 54.4 ± 15.3 years, 89.7 % were female and 63.4 % were married. We assessed thyroid function tests, thyroid antibodies, lipid profile, high-sensitivity C-reactive protein, B12vitamin, folic acid and applied several questionnaires, namely: the Thyroid Dependent Quality of Life questionnaire (ThyDQoL), the Thyroid Symptom Rating Questionnaire (ThySRQ), the Thyroid Treatment Satisfaction Questionnaire (ThyTSQ) and the Brief Symptom Inventory (BSI). Statistical analysis was performed with the One-way ANOVA test and Pearson’s correlation test. P values ≤ 0.05 were considered as statistically significant.

Results: In this sample we found that patients had a mean BMI of 28.4 ± 5.2 Kg/m² and TSH 2.69 ± 8.48 μUl/ml, FT4 1.15 ± 0.40 ng/dl. Patients reported a mean QoL value of -2.11 points (range from -9 to 1). In regard to the ThySRQ, 46.2 % of patients have noticed at least moderately memory problems, 50.4% of patients reported at least being moderately tired and 62.7 % showed some kind of depressed feelings. In concern with ThyTSQ, 83.5 % demonstrated being satisfied with treatment and 82 % believes that treatment is working well. In terms of correlations, we found positive correlations between TSH and weight gain (r=0.19;P=0.02) and loss of appetite (r=0.27;P=0.001). Free T3 correlated negatively with depression (r=-0.22;P=0.009), skin problems (r=-0.19;P=0.01) and loss of appetite (r=-0.22;P=0.007). Antithyroglobulin antibodies were negatively correlated with colder body sensation (r=-0.17;P=0.04) and antiperoxidase antibodies correlate itself with voice problems (r=-0.22;P=0.01).

Conclusions: In this study we can clearly see that despite the normal range of the TSH this disease negatively influences the QoL in AIT patients. We also noticed that there are certain symptoms that suffer a more direct influence of thyroid function. Further studies are needed to analyze the symptomatology that contributes to worsening of the QoL in these patients.