Anxiety and depression in women of reproductive age with thyroid disease

Abstract

Background. The problem of pathology of the affective sphere, especially anxiety and depressive disorders, at the pre­sent stage of development of society is especially relevant among general medical problems. In recent years, there has also been a patho­morphosis of mental disorders in various somatic and endocrine di­seases. A link between thyroid disease and mental disorders, inclu­ding autoimmune thyroiditis, has been found. Further research on this issue is important. The purpose of this study was to investigate the presence of mental disorders in women with subclinical hypothyroidism and euthyroidism on the background of autoimmune thyroiditis. Materials and methods. Anxiety and depression were assessed using the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS) in 176 women of reproductive age (18 to 44 years) with subclinical hypothyroidism and euthyroi­dism with autoimmune thyroiditis compared with healthy women. The exa­mination was conducted before the start of therapy for the underlying disease. Results. It was found that out of the 176 women surveyed, 37.5 % of them had anxiety syndrome, 13.6 % had depression, 10.8 % of women had comorbid anxiety disorder and depression, and 38.1 % of those surveyed had normal results. The group of women with autoimmune thyroiditis and subclinical hypothyroidism was dominated by clinically severe anxiety (40.9 %) and depression (15.1 %), the percentage of detected subclinical anxiety and depression was 7.6 % and 7.6 %, respectively, while the group of women with autoimmune thyroiditis and euthyroi­dism was dominated by subclinically expressed anxiety (37.1 %) and depression (8.6 %), and the percentage of clinically expressed anxiety and depression was 5.7 % and 1.4 %, respectively. Conclusions. Anxiety-depressive syndrome is 3.5 times more common in patients with thyroid diseases than in healthy women. There is a direct correlation of weak strength between the level of TSH in women with subclinical hypothyroidism and the number of points scored during the survey on both scales HADS-depression (r = 0.12, p < 0.05) and HADS-anxiety (r = 0.14, p < 0.05). There was a direct correlation of weak strength between the level of TPO Ab and the number of points scored during the survey in both scales HADS-depression (r = 0.17, p < 0.05) and HADS-anxiety (r = 0.19, p < 0.05).