Even though hypothyroidism has been classically related to mood disorders in medical literature, this fact does not always receive proper attention in clinical practice. To confirm this, we reviewed 117 medical records of adult patients with diagnosis of primary hypothyroidism from an outpatient Endocrinology service. The sample is composed by 9 men (mean age 53.4 years) and 108 women (44.9 years), whose hypothyroid status were diagnosed as: post-surgical (n= 37), classical (n= 45) or subclinical (n= 35). The psychiatric symptoms investigated were the ones utilized for the diagnosis of mood disorders by the DSM-IV. Three groups of patients were characterized: those with diagnosis of depression in psychiatric care with or without antidepressive drugs (n= 15); those without any psychiatric symptoms (n= 34) and those with symptoms suggestive of depressive disorder (n= 68). From these 68 patients, 15, 23, 21, 7 and 2 presented, respectively, 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5 symptoms. In two cases there were 5 psychiatric symptoms and in 28, 3 or 4 symptoms; these numbers are respectively associated with depression and dysthymia. These data call attention for the possibility of a significant number of undiagnosed cases of depressive disorders among hypothyroid patients, who would benefit from adequate psychiatric evaluation and treatment.
Hypothyroidism; Psychiatric symptoms; Mood disorders; Depression
