Prevalence of depression, anxiety and associated risk factors among hyperthyroid patients in Karachi, Pakistan

• Published in: European Journal of Psychology and Educational Studies 2015-07, Vol.2 (3), p.88-94
• Main Authors: Zafar, Mubashir, Zahra, Farah, Sharif, Sidra, Tariq, Samra, Mansoor, Raiya, Soomro, Sana, Batool, Asra, Azeem, Abdul, Zia, Fazail, Ghazal, Sohiba, Zaheer, Nazain, Usama, Muhammad
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Anxiety; Diabetes; Hormones; Hyperthyroidism; Mental depression; Patients; Questionnaires; Risk factors; Studies; Thyroid gland
• ISSN: 2395-2555; 2395-2555
• DOI: 10.4103/2395-2555.190478

Background: It is estimated that 5-10% of Pakistani population is suffering from thyroid disorders. Depression and anxiety are two very common symptoms of hyperthyroidism and patients with these symptoms are often misdiagnosed as having any psychiatric disease. The objective of this study was to determine the prevalence of depression and anxiety among hyperthyroid patients in our population of Karachi, Pakistan. Methods: Cross-sectional study was conducted in which 200 patients visiting the outpatient department of Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre, Karachi, Pakistan, were inducted. Patients were classified as hyperthyroid and euthyroid. Convenient sampling technique was used. Data collection tool was a questionnaire in which sociodemographic questions and Hamilton Depression Rating Scale and Hamilton Anxiety Rating Scale were included. Logistic regression was used to determine the association of depression and anxiety with sociodemographic factors among hyperthyroid patients. Odds ratio (OR), 95% confidence interval (CI) and P values were calculated. Results: Depression and anxiety among hyperthyroid patients were found to be 84% and 58%, respectively. In multivariate analysis for hyperthyroid patients, age group of 18-40 years and females were more than two times (OR = 2.716, CI = 0.886-8.332), (OR = 2.587, CI = 0.827-8.095) depressed, compared to age group of 41-60 years and males, respectively, after adjusting for covariates. Similarly, females were found to have anxiety more than one times (OR = 1.771, CI = 0.720-4.356) compared to males while age group of 18-40 years was 30.5% (OR = 0.695, CI = 0.286-1.689) less likely to have anxiety compared to age group of 41-60 years. Conclusion: The results of this study revealed that depression and anxiety are a common finding among hyperthyroid patients. Therefore, hyperthyroidism should always be considered in the differential diagnosis of patients who present primarily with neuropsychiatric symptoms.