ABSTRACT. How thyroid hormone therapy relieves many patients' depression has not been clearly elucidated. The relief of depression may result from a thyroid hormone-induced drop in cortisol and consequent potentiation of brain neurotransmitters. If so, it is possible that patients whose depression is underlain by high cortisol levels are most responsive to thyroid hormone therapy. If so, then the antidepressant effects of selective serotonin and norepinephrine reuptake inhibiting drugs may act partly through thyroid hormone effects on brain cortisol.

Key Words. Depression, cortisol, thyroid hormone, neurotransmitters, serotonin reuptake inhibitor, norepinephrine uptake inhibitor.

Thompson, F.K.: Is There A Thyroid-Cortisol-Depression Axis?
Thyroid Science, 2(10):H1, 2007.

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