Individual psychological manifestations in patients with diffuse toxic goiter

Abstract

Psychological personality features were analyzed in 83 patients with diffuse toxic goiter. Modern methods for assessing thyroid function and a complex of psychological tests permitting the assessment of various personality characteristics were used. The contribution of psychological factors to predisposition to diffuse toxic goiter was revealed using Leonhard’s questionnaire. The emotive exaltation type of personality accentuation was reveled in 65.2% of examinees. The Follow-Up method and the method for assessing the level of neurotization and psychopathization indicated an increased level of neurotization, which reliably decreased when thyrotoxicosis was eliminated (47.0 ± 8.7 scores in toxicosis and 25.8 ± 4.5 scores in euthyrosis, p<0.01). Patients with ophthalmopathy were an exclusion: psychological changes were more manifest and stable in them. If ophthalmopathy persisted, elimination of thyrotoxicosis did not reliably decrease the level of neurotization. In complicated forms of diffuse toxic goiter a dissociation between the severity of patient’s status and his or her self appraisal was observed