What Can Cause An Elevated Thyroid Level In A 21 Years Old?

Posted on Mon, 7 Jan 2013

Medically reviewed by Ask A Doctor - 24x7 Medical Review Team

Mon, 7 Jan 2013 Answered on

Mon, 28 Jan 2013 Last reviewed on

Question : What can cause an elevated thyroid level in a 21 y/o male, drugs,alcolhol, steroids? He is extremely anxious and agitated, the doctor says his thyroid level is high

Answered by Dr. Shehzad Topiwala (45 minutes later)

The symptoms being reported here include increased heart rate and BP juxtaposed with anxiety/agitation are fairly typical of an overactive thyroid condition called hyperthyroidism. Alcohol and steroids typically do not cause this. Some medications like amiodarone for example can do so. However, it seems to me that when you say 'drugs' , you may be referring to recreational drugs etc. Those are not known to cause hyperthyroidism unless they contain some form of thyroid hormone.
It is important to know the thyroid status in the form of labs like TSH, Total T3, Total T4, free T4, T3 uptake, CBC with differential, liver and kidney function tests. Further tests like radioactive iodine uptake and scan are in order provided the initial lab results are suggestive of an overactive thyroid. This type of test is necessary to determine the cause of hyperthyroidism, and treatment options depend on the cause too.

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Above answer was peer-reviewed by : Dr. Chakravarthy Mazumdar