The presence of antithyroid antibodies in patients with affective and nonaffective psychiatric disorders

The effects of prolonged lithium exposure on the immune system of normal control subjects: serial serum soluble interleukin-2 receptor and antithyroid antibody measurements

The purpose of this study was to begin evaluating the effects of lithium carbonate on in vivo immune function in normal controls. We postulated that lithium carbonate would stimulate lymphocytes but would not affect the production of antithyroid antibodies. Twenty-seven normal controls had blood samples drawn for measurements of serum soluble interleukin-2 receptors (SIL-2Rs), antithyroglobulin antibodies, and antimicrosomal antibodies prior to and after approximately 1 and 4 weeks of treatment with lithium carbonate at therapeutic blood levels. Subjects had a small but statistically significant increase in serum SIL-2Rs after 4 weeks of lithium treatment (446.3 +/- 177.2 U/ml versus 497.6 +/- 232.3 U/ml, p = 0.033). There was no increase in the prevalence of antithyroglobulin or antimicrosomal antibodies with lithium treatment nor did lithium act as an adjuvant to increase the titers in subjects with preexisting antithyroid antibodies.

Thyroid abnormalities during chronic lithium treatment in Hong Kong Chinese: a controlled study

Fifty Chinese psychiatric patients on chronic lithium treatment and the same number of sex- and age-matched control outpatients were assessed by a thyroidologist and underwent laboratory investigations. Lithium patients had a higher rate of goitres (50% vs 10%, P < 0.0001) and a higher mean TSH level (P < 0.005) than controls. Thyroid antibodies were detected in 7 older manic-depressive patients as opposed to 1 control, but not in patients with recurrent unipolar mania. Five patients, but no controls, had single or multiple episodes of hyperthyroidism, which was followed in 2 of them by biochemical hypothyroidism. It is suggested that variations in iodine status, dietary goitrogens, immunogenetic makeup and their complex interactions with chronic lithium treatment may contribute to ethnically different patterns of thyroid abnormalities.

Psychoendocrinological aspects of affective disorders

Psychoendocrinological studies have opened a new approach to understanding affective disorders. In this study, the links of affective illnesses to changes in endocrine secretions--particularly adrenal, gonadal, growth, pineal, thyroidal, and prolactin--were reviewed with the object of adding to the number of depressed whose symptoms can be relieved.