ABSTRACT
This is a preliminary study of the pattern of psychiatric illness in thyroid dysfunction, using a semi-stuctured psychiatric interview and DSM-111R diagnoses. A total of 72 patients [42 hyperthyroid and 30 hypothyroid] were studied for sociodemographic characteristic and associated psychiatric diagnoses. The majority of the patients were under the age of 50 [82%] and the females dominated over males in the ratio of 2.6:1. thirty patents [42%] of the two groups encountered psychiatric illness; 15 patients of each group. Anxiety and phobic neuroses were the commonest psychiatric illnesses [26.7%], more in the hyperthyroid group [45%]. Depression was second [20%], but more in the hypothyroid group [26.7%]. The organic brain syndrome was absent and functional psychosis was rare. These and other results in our study were discussed with comparable studies abroad. A multidisciplinary approach to the problem of psychiatric illness in thyroid dysfunction is suggested