The Misdiagnosis Machine: How Thyroid Problems Mimic the Symptoms of Mental Illness

Thyroid disorders are one of the leading causes of undiagnosed mental health issues. An overactive thyroid can make you feel sped-up and anxious, in a state of perpetual over-caffeination. An underactive thyroid typically means lower brain activity, which can lead to depression, brain fog, or irritability. In more than 430,000 scientific articles, depression has been linked with lowered thyroid levels.

For more than 200 years, the medical profession has identified the connection between optimal thyroid function and mental health.

An Anglo-Welsh physician named Caleb Parry all the way back in 1825 noted “nervous affectations” in people suffering from thyroid dysfunction. More than a century later, in 1969, depression was identified as a potential early sign of thyroid disease. It is also linked to schizophrenia, borderline personality disorder, bipolar disease, ADD/ADHD, and other mental health problems.

Before seeing your doctor, look for additional symptoms that could indicate there is more than meets the eye in your mental health struggles. They may include weight loss or gain, hair loss, fluctuations in your body temperature—feeling generally too hot or too cold—changes to your menstrual cycle, or persistent troubles with diarrhea or constipation.

Other symptoms to look for include:

Sluggishness
Racing thoughts
Memory problems
Trouble sleeping or unrestful sleep
Cramps or pain in your muscles or joints
Brittle nails
Extra dry skin
Yellowing skin
Symptoms of psychosis
Episodes of mania
Attentional problems or difficulty concentrating
Swelling in the front of your neck, which could indicate a swollen thyroid
Some of these symptoms on their own, such as difficulty sleeping and concentrating, can be primary symptoms of depression. However, the existence of one or several at the same time also could indicate your thyroid is involved.
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For a diagnosis of Hashimoto’s hypothyroidism, you must also have abnormal thyroid biomarkers. In this case, you must have an elevated TSH level with a low free T4 level and TPO antibodies above the reference range cutoff.

But remember, not everyone with TPO antibodies has a thyroid disorder. The presence of TPO antibodies means there is an ongoing attack against the thyroid, and likely some inflammatory response to the antibodies. But elevated antibodies do mean that you’re at a greater risk of developing a thyroid disorder like hypothyroidism in the future.
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