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Health-related quality of life, anxiety and depression in thyroid cancer patients under short-term hypothyroidism and TSH-suppressive levothyroxine treatment

Clinic of Psychosomatic Medicine and Psychotherapy and ¹ Department of Nuclear Medicine, University of Duisburg-Essen, Essen, Germany and ² Department of Psychosomatic Medicine and Psychotherapy, Ruhr-University Bochum, Germany

(Correspondence should be addressed to S Tagay, Clinic of Psychosomatic Medicine and Psychotherapy, University of Duisburg-Essen, Virchowstr. 174, 45147 Essen, Germany; Email: sefik.tagay{at}uni-essen.de)

Objective: Very few previous studies have compared the degree of health-related quality of life (HRQL), depression and anxiety of differentiated thyroid cancer patients (DTC) under short-term hypothyroid-ism and levothyroxine treatment.

Methods: Using patient-completed instruments, we examined the frequency of physical complaints, HRQL, anxiety and depression in 130 DTC patients hospitalized for radioiodine therapy or whole-body diagnostics (age 52 years, female 71%) under short-term hypothyroidism (4 weeks of levothyroxine withdrawal; DTC-H) and in 100 DTC out-patients under TSH-suppressive doses of levothyroxine subsequent to radioiodine therapy (DTC-L; age 49 years, female 81%).

Results: Compared with the German general population, DTC-H as well as DTC-L patients had significantly impaired HRQL. Notably, the decrease in HRQL was significantly higher in DTC-H than in DTC-L patients. Surprisingly, the prevalence of anxiety (44.6%) but not depression (17.7%) was much higher in the DTC-H patients than in the general population. In contrast to expectations, similar results for anxiety (44.0%) and depression (17.6%) were observed in the DTC-L patients.

Conclusions: This mounting evidence suggests that a consistent pattern of HRQL impairment is experienced by patients with DTC. The high frequency of anxiety and the significantly reduced HRQL should be considered in the aftercare of DTC patients.

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