Doctors treating patients with mildly underactive thyroid gland may be prescribing ineffective medication, Scottish experts said yesterday.
The Glasgow researchers set out their findings at a US conference yesterday.
Their study, also published in the The New England Journal of Medicine, suggests that the guidelines for patients with sub-clinical hypothyroidism are outdated.
Under current guidelines, levothyroxine is the most common medicine to prescribed in the US and the third most prescribed drug in the UK.
However, a five-year European study, led by the University of Glasgow, found that while levothyroxine tablets restore a normal balance of thyroid function, the treatment provided no apparent symptomatic benefits. The researchers found no improvement in muscle strength, speed of thought processes or any effect on body weight or blood pressure.
At the Endocrine Society Meeting (ENDO 2017) in Orlando, Florida, yesterday (3 April, 2017), the authors of the report called for a re-evaluation of the guidelines.
Lead author Professor David Stott, the David Cargill Chair of Geriatric Medicine at the University of Glasgow’s Institute of Cardiovascular and Medical Sciences, said: “Treatment with levothyroxine is common in clinical practice, but controversial.
"Our study concludes this treatment provides no apparent benefits for older adults and should therefore no longer be started routinely for this condition. An update of the guidelines is necessary.”
The study followed 737 older adults, half of whom were prescribed a placebo and the remaining half given levothyroxine. They were followed up for at least a year.
Stott D, Gussekloo J, Rodondi N et al. Thyroid Hormone Therapy for Older Adults with Subclinical Hypothyroidism. The New England Journal of Medicine 3 April 2017 [abstract]
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