The relationship of anxiety and depression to symptoms of hyperthyroidism using operational criteria

Abstract

Twenty-six females and seven males with newly diagnosed, untreated hyperthyroidism were administered a structured questionnaire designed to identify anxiety and depression using operational criteria. By DSM III criteria, 10 patients were found to have depression and 15 anxiety. The number of anxiety symptoms paralleled the number of hyperthyroid symptoms whereas depressive symptoms did not. Prior history of psychiatric disease and family history of psychiatric disease did not predict anxiety or depression in patients with hyperthyroidism. The number with depression and anxiety was felt to be artificially inflated by the concurrent presence of somatic thyroid symptoms. Psychiatric practitioners should be careful to exclude patients with hyperthyroidism before a primary psychiatric diagnosis is made.