Background

Unipolar depression might be characterized by a 'low-thyroid function syndrome'. To our knowledge, this is the first study which explores the possible relationship of DSM-IV depressive subtypes and the medium term outcome, with thyroid function.

Methods

Material: Thirty major depressive patients (DSM-IV) aged 21–60 years and 60 control subjects were included. Clinical Diagnosis: The SCAN v 2.0 and the IPDE were used. The psychometric Assessment included HDRS the HAS and the GAF scales. Free-T3, Free-T4, TSH, Thyroid Binding Inhibitory Immunoglobulins (TBII), Thyroglobulin antibodies (TA) and Thyroid Microsomal Antibodies (TMA) were measured in the serum. The Statistical analysis included 1 and 2-way MANCOVA, discriminant function analysis and Pearson Product Moment Correlation Coefficient.

Results

All depressive subtypes had significantly higher TBII levels in comparison to controls. Atypical patients had significantly higher TMA in comparison to controls. No significant correlation was observed between the HDRS, HAS and GAF scales and thyroid indices. Discriminant function analysis produced functions based on thyroid indices, which could moderately discriminate between diagnostic groups, but could predict good response to treatment with 89.47% chance of success.

Conclusion

Although overt thyroid dysfunction is not common in depression, there is evidence suggesting the presence of an autoimmune process affecting the thyroid gland in depressive patients

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Summary. Antibody lysis has been studied in PNH, in congenital dyserythropoietic anaemia and in other blood diseases with abnormal erythropoiesis. This last group of acquired dyserythropoietic anaemias included, especially, aplastic anaemia, megaloblastic anaemias, myelosclerosis and leukaemia. Cold‐antibody lysis, complement sensitivity and anti‐I antibody uptake by red cells were measured. In both congenital dyserythropoietic anaemia and the acquired dyserythropoietic anaemias of all types there was increased cold‐antibody lysis which was mainly or entirely due to increased antibody binding, without increased complement sensitivity. In PNH, on the other hand, there was slightly increased antibody uptake but lysis was much greater than could be accounted for by this alone and was mainly due to increased complement sensitivity. PNH thus appears to be uniquely different from the dyserythropoietic anaemias. Also, whereas in PNH complement sensitivity curves indicated the presence of two populations of red cells, in the dyserythropoietic anaemias the curves suggested that only one cell population was present.