Dr. Sheldon Rubenfeld Board Certified in Internal Medicine and in Endocrinology, Diabetes, and Metabolism

Thyroid Disease and Depression?

The symptoms of depression may overlap with, or be confused with, the symptoms of hypothyroidism. For example, fatigue, sleeping excessively, inability to concentrate, apathy, and poor memory may occur in both disorders. Furthermore, hypothyroidism can aggravate symptoms of depression, although it does not ordinarily cause depression. To determine whether patients have depression or hypothyroidism, their physicians may ask them to make the distinction between feeling sad and feeling tired. Similarly, physicians may ask their patients to make the distinction between losing interest in the activities of daily living and not having the energy to do them. Both depression and hypothyroidism are common, especially in women. In addition, depression may be seen more often in patients with thyroid dysfunction than in euthyroid patients. Therefore, it is possible, and not at all unusual, for patients to have both hypothyroidism and depression.

Even when tests indicate normal thyroid function, some patients are reluctant to consider that they could be suffering from depression. Misconceptions and the social stigma erroneously attached to depression may make it a difficult diagnosis to accept. Nonetheless, if hypothyroid patients are also depressed, they will not get well without treating both their depression and their hypothyroidism.

As previously discussed, depression and hypothyroidism share many symptoms, and one disease may mask the other. Since abnormal thyroid function may be more common in patients suffering from depression, it is logical to test the thyroid function of depressed patients. Even mild thyroid failure can interfere with the treatment of depression.