Thyroid Profile in Drug Naive Cases of Depression

Abstract

Background: Depression is a major public health problem, in terms of its prevalence and suffering, dysfunction, morbidity, and economic burden. Thyroid dysfunction is often seen in the patient with depression. Thyroid Function Test’s (TFT) can be considered as an integral part of the evaluation of newly depressed patients. Therefore, it will be beneficial for the psychiatrists to be cautious during the management of treatment resistant depression cases. Aim: 1) To assess the thyroid profile in newly diagnosed drug naive depression cases and healthy control and 2) To find out the clinical correlation between the thyroid profile and severity of depression. Materials and Methods: It is a case control study where - Study group is newly diagnosed drug naive case of depression and control group is the equal number of same age and sex matched people selected from the normal healthy population. Thyroid profile level is evaluated in both this group and levels are compared. Results and Discussion: This study shows that the number of moderate and severe depression cases is more than the mild depression of cases and thyroid profile levels (T3, T4, and TSH) are increased with increasing severity of depression. A Maximum number of cases in study group show normal thyroid level (76%), only 2% of cases have hypothyroidism and 14% and 8% of cases have subclinical hypothyroidism and hyperthyroidism. Conclusion: Many a time it has been seen that cases of depression show resistance to treatment and thyroid dysfunction are one the causes of such resistant cases. Therefore thyroid screening test is necessary for depression. Future prospective studies are needed, to clarify the significance of thyroid dysfunction in depression and help us to understand the etio-pathology and management of depression.