[Relevance of the thyroid function assessment in psychiatric patients]

Thyroid dysfunction is frequent in psychiatric outpatients and the correction of their endocrine abnormalities seems to improve the response to psychopharmacologic treatment.

To retrospectively explore the frequency of thyroid abnormalities in psychiatric outpatients.

Clinical charts and thyroid assessment of 102 psychiatric patients aged 40.8 +/- 15 years old (28 male) seen between April 1995 and September 1996 were reviewed. Endocrine diagnosis was made according to international criteria and psychiatric diagnosis was made by a single psychiatrist following DSM IV criteria.

Forty patients (39.2%) had thyroid abnormalities. Thirteen (12.7%) had a diagnosis of thyroid problems and were in treatment before they came to the psychiatric clinic. Sixteen patients had hypothyroidism (40%), seven had subclinical hypothyroidism (17.5%), 12 were euthyroid but had goiter or positive thyroid antibodies (30%) and 5 individuals had hyperthyroidism (12.5%). The most frequent thyroid abnormality was the presence of positive thyroid antibodies in 16 cases (15.7%). No specific association was found between psychiatric and endocrine diagnoses.

The design of this study prevents to draw conclusions about prevalence of thyroid alterations in psychiatric patients. Nevertheless results support the need for routine thyroid assessment in this specific population.