COGNITIVE AND AFFECTIVE-DISORDERS IN HYPERTHYREOTIC AND HYPOTHYREOTICELDERLY PATIENTS

A sample of 424 elderly residents (222 men and 202 women) above the ag e of 70 years, selected randomly from the anagraphic lists of a quarti er of Catania (Eastern Sicily) was studied. Serum levels of triiodothy ronine (T3), tetraiodothyronine (T4) and thyroidea stimulating hormone (TSH) were measured. The cognitive performance of the subjects was ev aluated by the mini mental state examination (MMSE). The affective sta tus was evaluated by using the geriatric depression scale (GDS), where a slight-moderate depression was indicated by a score range of 11 to 20, and a severe depression was established at scores above 20. The pa tients were classified as euthyroids, hyperthyroids (10 patients), hyp othyroids (10 patients) and in state of alerted pituitary (SAP) (40 pa tients). The prevalence of cognitive disorders varied between 10 and 4 0 %, although the statistical evaluation proved to be insignificant be tween the various groups. The total prevalence of slight-moderate and severe depression was in the range of 50 and 53 % in the euthyroid and SAP patients, whereas it reached 70 and 80 % in the hyper- and hypoth yroid patients, respectively. The possible interrelationships between thyroid pathologies and mental performances are discussed.