Contribution of nonspecific systems of the brain to the pathogenesis of thyroid diseases

Abstract

Ten patients with diffuse toxic goiter, 1—2 nd degree, ten ones with hypothyrosis of medium severity, and a group of healthy controls were examined. Manifest emotional, personality, and vegetative disorders were revealed in patients of both groups, as well as changes in the electrical activity of the brain and in status of the afferent systems of the brain, this being indicative of marked dysfunction of nonspecific cerebral systems in patients with thyroid diseases. Anxiety depressive emotional disorders and activation of the in-depth compartments of the membranous reticular complex were revealed in both groups of patients. These changes are nonspecific and appear to represent a common neurogenic mechanism of thyroid dysfunctiion.General activation of the brain and peripheral cerebral activation detected in patients with hyperthyrosis are secondary and result from effects of thyroid hormones on the nervous system.