Association of thyroid dysfunction with depression in a teaching hospital.

BACKGROUND: Thyroid dysfunction is common in patients with depression and depression is also common in patients with thyroid dysfunction. The purpose of this study was to estimate the prevalence of thyroid dysfunction in newly diagnosed depressed patients attending Psychiatry outpatient department of Tribhuvan University Teaching Hospital, Nepal and to find the correlation between the two. METHODS: The study population comprised of 70 patients aged more than 15 years selected by simple random sampling technique who attended the Psychiatry OPD of Tribhuvan University Teaching Hospital, Kathmandu, Nepal and were diagnosed with first episode depression. A self- designed semi structured proforma was devised to obtain the socio- demographic characteristics of the study population. These patients were diagnosed as depression as per the ICD-10 DCR Criteria and HDRS scale was used at the same interview to verify it objectively. RESULTS: Fifteen patients (21%) were found to have thyroid dysfunction, the most common being sub-clinical hypothyroidism, seen in 8 (11%). Thyroid dysfunction also showed positive correlation with depression severity. The diagnosis of depression by ICD- 10 DCR Criteria had positive correlation with HDRS grading of depression, though no significant association was found between different socio- demographic variables and depression. CONCLUSIONS: This study concluded that thyroid dysfunction is common in depressed patients and larger studies are required in this field before TFTs are considered as an integral part of evaluation of these patients.