Comparison of thyroid-stimulating hormone levels in adolescents with schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, unipolar depression, conduct disorders, and hyperkinetic disorders

The aim of this study was to retrospectively compare values of thyroid-stimulating hormone (TSH) in adolescent patients diagnosed with schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, unipolar depression (UNI-DEP), conduct disorders (CD), and hyperkinetic disorders. The research involved 1122 patients (718 women, 64%); aged 12 to 18 hospitalized in the Department of Adolescent Psychiatry, Medical University of Lodz. We analyzed TSH levels in the whole study population and compared it between the above-mentioned subgroups of diagnoses. Mean serum TSH concentration in the studied population (n = 1122) was 2.06 μIU/mL. The values of percentiles were as follows: 2.5th – 0.53 μIU/mL, 10th – 0.89 μIU/mL, 25th – 1.31 μIU/mL, 50th – 1.9 μIU/mL, 75th – 2.6 μIU/mL, 90th – 3.43 μIU/mL, 97.5th – 4.72 μIU/mL. TSH values were negatively correlated with patients’ age (P = .00001). Patients with bipolar depression had higher TSH levels than patients with CD (P = .002). Also, when male and female groups were examined separately we found that female patients with UNI-DEP and bipolar disorder had higher TSH levels than female patients with CD (P = .001; P = .001). Our results confirm that there may be a higher prevalence of thyroid dysfunctions in bipolar and UNI-DEP subgroups among adolescents and that it is worthy to consider some kind of interventions regarding thyroid function in depressed individuals.