Abstract:

Objective: Hashimoto’s thyroiditis (HT) is the most common autoimmune thyroid disease. There are studies suggesting that childhood traumas cause hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis dysfunction in adulthood, which predisposes patients to autoimmune diseases. Our study aimed to investigate the relationship between HT and childhood trauma. Methods: In our study, we included 52 patients diagnosed with HT and 31 healthy controls and evaluated the Turkish Childhood Trauma Questionnaire (which evaluates childhood traumas retrospectively) in both groups. The diagnosis of HT was confirmed using anti-thyroid peroxi-dase (anti-TPO) levels and thyroid ultrasonography. Results: The childhood emotional neglect score (10.79±3.90) was significantly higher in pa-tients with HT than in the control group (p=0.04). However, no significant difference was ob-served between the two groups regarding other components. In addition, a significant positive correlation was found between anti-TPO levels and emotional neglect score (p=0.02; r=0.26). Conclusion: The significantly higher emotional neglect score in patients with HT compared with the control group and the positive correlation between childhood emotional neglect score and anti-TPO level suggest that childhood traumas may play a role in the etiology of adult HT. Further and large-scale studies are needed to elucidate all aspects of this subject.

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