Association between affective temperaments and psychosomatic symptoms in women with Hashimoto's thyroiditis

Hashimoto's thyroiditis (HT) is a prevalent autoimmune disease of thyroid gland with a shared immunological mechanism with mood disorders. Affective temperament (AT) is a biologically determined personality trait that has been linked to mood disorders. The aim of this study was to examine the association between dominant AT and levels of psychosomatic symptoms in women newly diagnosed with HT in comparison to clinically healthy subjects.

The observational cross-sectional study with nested case control study was involving 146 consecutive participants, who were divided into three groups. The two study groups consisted of women with HT (73), including 49 with hypothyroid HT and 24 with euthyroid HT, and the third group was a control group of healthy participants (73). The Serbian version of the TEMPS-A was utilized to assess AT, while the 4DSQ was used to measure psychosomatic symptoms.

The results showed that hyperthymic AT was dominant in all examined groups. The groups with HT differed from the control group in terms of depressive and cyclothymic AT. Furthermore, the study found higher levels of psychosomatic symptoms in the group with HT compared to the control group, with significant differences in distress (p = 0.005) and somatization (p = 0.023) levels. All AT was associated with levels of psychosomatic symptoms in subjects with hypothyroid HT. In contrast, in subjects with euthyroid HT, the association was only found between depressive and cyclothymic AT with distress and depression levels, as well as between somatization and cyclothymic AT. No association was found between AT and anxiety levels in subjects with euthyroid HT.

The research found differences between study groups in the association between AT and levels of psychosomatic symptoms. Further research with a larger sample size is necessary to more clearly define the associations between affective temperaments and psychosomatic symptoms in women with euthyroid and hypothyroid HT.