The impact of hypothyroidism on cognitive processes, with particular emphasis on attention and memory issues

Introduction:
The aim of the study was to ascertain whether people with hypothyroidism and treated for it have greater problems with the effectiveness of attention and memory processes than healthy people. As part of the specific objectives of the study, it was analyzed whether additional variables, such as reported symptoms related to the disease, body weight, medications taken and smoking, differentiate the sick from the healthy.

Material and methods:
The study involved women diagnosed with hypothyroidism, including patients with chronic autoimmune Hashimoto’s thyroiditis (n = 40), age 22-50 years. Healthy women aged 22-46 years were examined in the control group (n = 40). The study used a battery of CANTAB Cognitive Tests.

Results:
No statistically significant differences were found between patients and healthy women. Patients with no symptoms associated with thyroid dysfunction obtained higher results in the rapid processing of visual information test from symptomatic patients and healthy individuals with similar symptoms.

Conclusions:
Women with hypothyroidism treated with levothyroxine and healthy women do not differ in the ability to sustain attention, visual efficiency of working memory, spatial working memory, and the time of motor and mental reactions. The subjective assessment of memory among patients is definitely worse than among healthy women. Deterioration of sustained attention was observed in women reporting two symptoms and more, both in the group of sick and healthy participants. Overweight and obesity are more common among patients. There are more smokers among the sick than healthy women and more than the average among women who smoke in Poland.