THYROID FUNCTIONING DURING TREATMENT FOR DEPRESSION

Thirty-nine unipolar depressed patients were treated, after a washout period of seven days in a double blind study with either moclobemide, placebo or amitriptyline, for 42 days. The psychopathological assessme nt and HRSD were done on seven day intervals and thyroid analysis was done on 14 day intervals. At the end of therapy, the levels of T4 and fT4 decreased significantly in the responders if amitriptyline was use d, and non-significantly if placebo or moclobemide were used. The T4 a nd fT4 values of the non-responders increased non-significantly. The w eight change was minimal and non-significant.