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WEDNESDAY, May 15, 2019 (HealthDay News) — Thyroid hormones are not recommended for adults with subclinical hypothyroidism (SCH), according to an article published online May 14 in The BMJ<\/i>.<\/p>\n
Geertruida E. Bekkering, Ph.D., from KU Leuven in Belgium, and colleagues conducted a systematic review to develop recommendations for thyroid hormone treatment among patients with SCH. Data were included from 21 trials with 2,192 participants.<\/p>\n
The researchers found that thyroid hormones consistently demonstrated no clinically relevant benefits for quality of life or thyroid-related symptoms, including depressive symptoms, fatigue, and body mass index, for adults with SCH (moderate- to high-quality evidence). Thyroid hormones seem to have little or no effect on cardiovascular events or mortality (low-quality evidence); only one trial measured harms, with few events at two-year follow-up. Based on these findings, the guideline panel issued a strong recommendation against thyroid hormones in adults with SCH. The recommendation does not apply to women trying to get pregnant or patients with thyroid stimulating hormone levels >20 mIU\/L and may not apply to young adults or patients with severe symptoms.<\/p>\n
“Future research could explore whether there is an unidentified subgroup of patients who do benefit from treatment,” the authors write. “No evidence of a potential subgroup or even a trend was observed in the current body of evidence, consistently across outcomes.”<\/p>\n