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Association between autoimmune thyroiditis and depressive disorder in psychiatric outpatients

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Abstract

Thyroid diseases are often associated with psychiatric disorders. The prevalence of autoimmune thyroiditis in the general population is estimated to be at about 5–14 %. A clinical study was conducted to evaluate the association between autoimmune thyroiditis and depression in psychiatric outpatients. Fifty-two patients with depression and nineteen patients with schizophrenia (serving as control group), attending a psychiatric outpatient unit, were included. In addition to the measurement of thyroid-stimulating hormone (TSH), free triiodothyronine, free thyroxine, antithyroid peroxidase (anti-TPO) antibodies, and anti-thyroglobulin antibodies, ultrasound examination of the thyroid gland was performed. The proportion of pathologically increased anti-TPO levels in patients with depression was high. Furthermore, the distribution of pathologically increased anti-TPO levels was significantly (χ 2 = 5.5; p = 0.019) different between patients with depression (32.7 %) and patients with schizophrenia (5.3 %). In a gender- and age-adjusted logistic regression, the odds ratio of uni- or bipolar patients with depression for an autoimmune thyroiditis was ten times higher (95 % CI = 1.2–85.3) when compared with schizophrenia patients. TSH basal level did not differ between patients with depression and patients with schizophrenia. Our study demonstrates a strong association between anti-TPO levels, which are considered to be of diagnostic value for autoimmune thyroiditis (in combination with a hypoechoic thyroid in ultrasonography) with uni- or bipolar depression. It should be noted that the routinely measured TSH level is not sufficient in itself to diagnose this relevant autoimmune comorbidity.

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The authors declare that they have no competing interests.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Georg-August University of Göttingen, Von-Siebold-Str. 5, 37075, Göttingen, Germany

    Detlef Degner, Merle Haust & Eckart Rüther

  2. Department of Nuclear Medicine, Georg-August University of Göttingen, Göttingen, Germany

    Johannes Meller

  3. Department of Public Health and Primary Care, Trinity College Dublin, Dublin, Ireland

    Udo Reulbach

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  1. Detlef Degner
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  2. Merle Haust
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  3. Johannes Meller
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  4. Eckart Rüther
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  5. Udo Reulbach
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Correspondence to Detlef Degner.

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Degner, D., Haust, M., Meller, J. et al. Association between autoimmune thyroiditis and depressive disorder in psychiatric outpatients. Eur Arch Psychiatry Clin Neurosci 265, 67–72 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00406-014-0529-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00406-014-0529-1

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