Depression Level Among Thyroid Disorder Patients and Its Correlation

Objective: Patients with thyroid disorders were found to experience depression due to several factors. The aims of this study was to measure depression level among thyroid disorder patients and examine the correlation between depression and Thyroid Stimulating Hormone (TSH) and free Thyroxine (fT4), stressful life events and social support level. Methods: A cross sectional study was carried out at one of the non-profit hospital at central region of Peninsular Malaysia. 153 thyroid patients were selected by using simple random sampling technique. The ethical approval was sought from IIUM Research Ethics Committee (IREC563) and the Medical Research and Ethics Committee (MREC) (NMRR-15-2127-28667). Several tools were used in this study including Depression Anxiety Stress Scale-42 (DASS-42), list of Life Threatening Experiences (LTE), Multidimensional Scale of Perceived Social Support (MSPSS); and Thyroid Function Test including TSH and fT4 were reviewed from the patient’s file. A correlation test was used to analyse the data by using SPSS version 21.0. Results: About 15% (n=23) out of 153 thyroid disorder patients had varies degree of depression (males - 7.8% (n=3) and females – 17.3% (n=20)). Also, there were positive correlation between depression and TSH (r=0.235, p=0.03), stressful life events (r=0.264, p=0.001) and negative correlation (r=-0.068, p=0.402) with perceived social support from family. Conclusion: These findings suggested that thyroid disorder patients had  depression and the factors associated with depression were high TSH level,  recent stressful life events and  low social support from the family. These factors can be considered while assessing thyroid disorder patients who had symptoms of depression.