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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Endocrinol.
Sec. Thyroid Endocrinology
Volume 15 - 2024 | doi: 10.3389/fendo.2024.1454744

The Association Between Depression and Thyroid Function

Provisionally accepted
Yuhui Ma Yuhui Ma 1Miao Wang Miao Wang 2Zhishen Zhang Zhishen Zhang 3*
  • 1 Department of Ultrasound, Qilu Hospital, Shandong University, Qingdao, China
  • 2 Qingdao Chest Hospital, Qingdao, Shandong Province, China
  • 3 Department of Psychological, Qingdao Central Hospital, Qingdao, China

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    Emerging evidence indicated that depression is currently one of the most burdensome diseases worldwide and it can lead to a variety of functional physical impairments. However, the studies estimated the association between depression and thyroid function remain sparse. We aimed to investigate the association between depression and thyroid function in the American population. A cross-sectional analysis was performed using the data from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) conducted from 2007 to 2012. In the 12502 adults aged 20-80, weighted linear regression models and multiple logistic regression models were applied to evaluate the association between depression and thyroid function indicators. The thyroid indicators investigated were mainly free thyroxine (FT4), total T4 (TT4), free triiodothyronine (FT3), total T3 (TT3), thyroid-stimulating hormone (TSH), and antithyroperoxidase antibody (TPOAb), Thyroglobulin (Tg) and antithyroglobulin antibody (TgAb). The final results were reached after adjusting for various confounding factors. In the stratification analysis of subgroups divided by age, depression was significantly negatively correlated with FT4, FT3, and TT3 in both younger adults (p = 0.00122, <0.00001, 0.00003) and older adults (p = 0.00001, 0.00004, <0.00001). In contrast, depression was significantly negatively correlated with TT4, TPOAb, and Tg in older adults (p = 0.00054, 0.07083, 0.00695) and positively correlated in younger adults (p = 0.01352, 0.00488, <0.00001). The subgroup analysis by gender revealed that depression was significantly negatively correlated with FT4, FT3, and TT3 in both adult males (p = 0.0164, 0.0204, 0.0050) and adult females (p = <0.0001, <0.0001, <0.0001 ), which was more prominent in females. The positive correlation between depression symptoms and TPOAb was only found in adult females (p = 0.0282). This study confirmed a significant correlation between depressive and thyroid function and it varied among different genders or iodine concentrations. In the future, more prospective studies are needed to reveal these findings and confirm a causal relationship between them.

    Keywords: thyroid1, thyroid function2, depression3, NHANES4, cross-sectional study5

    Received: 25 Jun 2024; Accepted: 12 Aug 2024.

    Copyright: © 2024 Ma, Wang and Zhang. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence: Zhishen Zhang, Department of Psychological, Qingdao Central Hospital, Qingdao, China

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