Thyroxine and the treatment of affective disorders: an overview of the results of basic and clinical research

The International Journal of Neuropsychopharmacology
Andreas Baumgartner

Abstract

Eight open clinical trials conducted by 7 different study groups and including 78 patients have all demonstrated that augmentation with supraphysiological doses of thyroxine (T4) has antidepressant and prophylactic effects in roughly 50% of patients completely resistant to all other antidepressant and prophylactic therapies. Beneficial effects have been observed in unipolar and bipolar (rapid-cycling and non-rapid-cycling) patients, but only when an antidepressant or prophylactic drug was administered concomitantly. Double-blind studies are now needed in order to confirm these results. It has also consistently been shown that high serum concentrations of T4 predict favourable response to antidepressant treatment and that the serum levels of T4 decrease in responders to these treatments, but not in non-responders. As thyroid hormone function in the CNS depends almost entirely on the uptake of T4 and its intracellular deiodination to the active compound T3, the hypothesis was investigated that the falls in serum levels of T4 seen during antidepressant treatment are due to enhanced conversion of T4 to T3 in the CNS. However, the results of several animal studies revealed that, while a number of different antidepressants do in fact...Continue Reading

Citations

Jun 14, 2002·Journal of Affective Disorders·Michael BauerAndreas Baumgartner
Aug 30, 2000·Schizophrenia Research·A BaumgartnerW Gaebel
Sep 1, 2005·Thyroid : Official Journal of the American Thyroid Association·Françoise CourtinMichel Pierre
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