What Causes Fatigue, Depression And Anxiety While On Methimazole?

Posted on Sun, 21 Feb 2016

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

Sun, 21 Feb 2016 Answered on

Sat, 30 Apr 2016 Last reviewed on

Question : My wife has Graves Disease(hyperthyroid) that went undiagnosed & untreated for 4 to 5 years. She has been taking methimazole for several months. Her TSI is 144, T4 0.9, TSH 3.47 from her latest lab test. She still has lots of fatigue, itchy skin(scratching causing blisters and bleeding), depression, anxiety, poor memory and concentration, and now a low resting pulse rate(54). She sees her endocrinologist next week. We have read that some people with similar cases have adrenal problems, should we ask her endocrinologist about that? Also what are the effects of long term untreated graves disease? We can't find any studies that address this.

Answered by Dr. Binu Parameswaran Pillai (55 minutes later)

Brief Answer:
Grave's disease

Detailed Answer:
Good day,
Noted your concern. Grave's disease is an autoimmune disease and many other auto immune diseases can be associated with Grave's disease. Adrenal disorders, especially addison's disease is often associated. It causes low cortisol hormone, fatugue and tiredness. Vitamin B12 deficiency ( pernicious anemia) is another important association. You should discuss with your endocrinoloist about these issues.
They are correctable.
Long term untreated Grave's disease can cause weakneing of heart, irregular heart beats ( atrial fibrillation), weak bones ( osteoporosis) etc.
regards
Binu

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