American psychiatrists concluded that an abnormal level of thyroid hormones in the blood can contribute to the development of depression, anxiety and psychiatric diseases, writes The New York Times.
According to Russell Joffe, a psychiatrist from the North Shore-Long Island Jewish Health System, the treatment of hidden hypothyroidism, which affects about two percent of Americans, can alleviate the psychiatric problems of some patients and even prevent a decline in cognitive abilities.
Researchers argue that a number of factors can lead to thyroid dysfunction, especially as this probability rises with age.
An overabundance of thyroid hormones speeds up metabolism, which can cause sweating, palpitations, weight loss and anxiety. The lack of these hormones can cause rapid fatigue, weight gain and lethargy, as well as depression, inability to concentrate and memory problems. Doctors have long argued that primarily – problems with the thyroid gland or psychiatric symptoms. According to Dr. Brown Jennifer Davis, patients with thyroid problems are often mistakenly diagnosed as psychiatric.
Some doctors believe that patients with emotional disorders and latent forms of hypothyroidism should be treated by prescribing to them hormones of the thyroid gland. However, endocrinologists are arguing about the need for treatment of latent hypothyroidism. On the one hand, such treatment can increase the burden on the heart and lead to complications in osteoporosis in women, says Dr. Joffe. On the other hand, if the disease is not treated, it can also lead to an increase in the stress burden on the heart and, according to some studies, increase the risk of Alzheimer’s and other forms of dementia.
Women are more likely to have thyroid problems than men, especially after 50 years, and some experts believe that reluctance to treat hidden forms of the disease is due in part to gender-based reasons: “There is a terrible prejudice against women coming to the doctor with minor complaints of emotional state.These complaints are usually ignored or written off for stress or anxiety, “admits Dr. Davis.
Another difficulty is that many experts are unclear what level of thyroid hormones should be considered “normal”, the publication continues. “The patient may have a TSH level of 5, which many doctors do not think is high enough to cause any symptoms.However, if a person initially had a TSH level of about 0.5, then 5 means an increase in TTG by a factor of ten, and for a given person it could be “says Dr. James Hennessy, head of the department of clinical endocrinology at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston, who believes that patients with TTG from 5 to 10, especially those with psychiatric disorders, should be treated with thyroid medications.