title: A comparison of rh-TSH and thyroid hormone withdrawal in patients with differentiated thyroid cancer: preliminary evidence for an influence of age on the subjective well-being in hypothyroidism.
abstract: We aimed to investigate the subjective well-being in patients with differentiated thyroid cancer after hormone withdrawal. Since this might be confounded by psycho-oncological processes unrelated to hypothyroidism we intended to minimize such factors by only including patients with a history of uneventful follow-up examinations for several years. We investigated 67 patients applying the General Health Questionnaire (GHQ-12) at 3 time points t1, t2, and t3. The time point t2 represented an intensified follow-up examination 5 years after thyroidectomy, which was performed either on hormone withdrawal (49 patients) or using rh-TSH (18 patients). The time points t1 and t3 took place during follow-up examinations 6 months before and after t2 in a euthyroid state. Additionally, we assessed the impact of age, gender, family status, and education on the GHQ-12 score at all 3 time points. Within the hormone withdrawal group the analyses demonstrated a significant difference between t1 and t2 as well as t3 and t2. Additionally, there was a significant negative correlation of age with GHQ-12 sum scores at t2, but not at t1 or t3. Subgroup analyses at t2 indicated that the subjective well-being in younger patients was more impaired compared to elderly patients. The between-group analysis showed no significant differences. However, concerning the age effect there was a significant difference between the subgroup of young hypothyroid patients and the total rh-TSH group at t2. We demonstrated preliminary evidence for an influence of age on the subjective well-being in hypothyroidism suggesting that younger subjects are subjectively more impaired by hypothyroidism than elderly ones.
authors: Department of Nuclear Medicine, Heinrich Heine-University of Düsseldorf, Düsseldorf, Germany. a.heinzel@fz-juelich.de
authors: A
authors: A
authors: Heinzel
authors: K
authors: K
authors: Kley
authors: H-W
authors: HW
authors: Mueller
authors: H
authors: H
authors: Hautzel
mesh_terms: D000375:Aging / Q000473:pathology*; D002454:Cell Differentiation / Q000187:drug effects; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007037:Hypothyroidism / Q000150:complications*; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D011994:Recombinant Proteins / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D018709:Statistics, Nonparametric; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D013963:Thyroid Hormones / Q000494:pharmacology / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D013964:Thyroid Neoplasms / Q000150:complications / Q000188:drug therapy* / Q000473:pathology*; D013972:Thyrotropin / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D013997:Time Factors
chemical_list: D011994:Recombinant Proteins; D013963:Thyroid Hormones; D013972:Thyrotropin