Citation

Chen PH, Huang YJ. Neuropsychiatr. Dis. Treat. 2015; 11: 339-342.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2015, Dove Press)

DOI

10.2147/NDT.S76973

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

The literature suggests that patients with bipolar disorder, particularly females, have greater vulnerability to rapid cycling features. Levothyroxine therapy might be potentially useful to attenuate mood instability in this patient group. In contrast, reports on male patients remain limited and controversial. Herein, we report a 32-year-old male patient who had bipolar 1 disorder for 12 years who developed a breakthrough rapid cycling course and first-onset clinical hypothyroidism at the age of 31 years during lithium therapy. After levothyroxine augmentation therapy was introduced, the patient had remission from the rapid cycling illness course along with normalization of serum levels of free T4 and thyroid stimulating hormone in the subsequent year. This observation suggested that investigation of both levothyroxine pharmacology and thyroid pathology in male patients with rapid cycling bipolar disorder might be of much value. © 2015 Chen and Huang.

Language: en

Keywords

adult; human; male; Therapy; case report; suicide attempt; lithium; clozapine; levothyroxine; length of stay; quetiapine; thyrotropin; thyrotropin blood level; follow up; risperidone; valproic acid; lamotrigine; thyroid function test; DSM-IV; remission; hypothyroidism; Mood disorder; treatment response; thyroxine; Article; rapid cycling bipolar disorder; free thyroxine index; thyroxine blood level; goiter; hand tremor; lithium blood level; medication compliance; clinical hypothyroidism; Thyroid hormone