Does Treatment Improve Symptoms in Patients with Subclinical Hypothyroidism ?
Many patients, when screened, have at least one symptom that could be related to subclinical hypothyroidism. Common symptoms include muscle cramps, dry skin, cold intolerance, constipation, poor energy levels, fatigue and mental slowness.3 Three small trials discussed below have looked at the relationship between SH and symptoms and the benefit (or lack of) of treatment. The first study by Cooper et al.7 was a double-blind, placebo-controlled trial of 33 patients (only one male) most of who previously had been treated for Graves disease and now had SH. Patients were given a questionnaire on hypothyroid symptoms, specifically, muscle cramps, dry skin, cold intolerance, constipation, poor energy, and easy fatigability. Twenty euthyroid controls were also given the same questionnaire. It is important to note that the euthyroid controls had one fewer symptom on average than did those with SH. Each patient scored each symptom on a scale of -2 to +2 and symptoms for each patient were added t
