Trial reportThe journals of gerontology. Series A, Biological sciences and medical sciences2020
Effect of Thyroid Hormone Therapy on Fatigability in Older Adults With Subclinical Hypothyroidism: A Nested Study Within a Randomized Placebo-Controlled Trial.
Trial report in The journals of gerontology. Series A, Biological sciences and medical sciences, 2020. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 9 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
9 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 16 citations in OpenAlex.
- Effect of Levothyroxine on Older Patients With Subclinical Hypothyroidism: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis.Frontiers in endocrinology · 2022Pooled it
- Causal associations between thyroid function and sarcopenia-related traits: a Mendelian randomization study.Hormones (Athens, Greece) · 2025Article
- Severity of Fatigue and Its Relationship with TSH before and after Levothyroxine Replacement Therapy in Patients with Primary Hypothyroidism.Biomedicines · 2023Article
- The different outcomes in the elderly with subclinical hypothyroidism diagnosed by age-specific and non-age-specific TSH reference intervals: a prospectively observational study protocol.Frontiers in endocrinology · 2023Article
- Measuring and Understanding the Health Impact of Greater Fatigability in Older Adults: A Call to Action and Opportunities.Fatigue : biomedicine, health & behavior · 2023Article
- Approach to adult patients with primary hypothyroidism in some special situations: a position statement from the Thyroid Department of the Brazilian Society of Endocrinology and Metabolism (SBEM).Archives of endocrinology and metabolism · 2022Article
- Brain Fog in Hypothyroidism: What Is It, How Is It Measured, and What Can Be Done About It.Thyroid : official journal of the American Thyroid Association · 2022Review
- Genome‑wide profiling of DNA methylation and gene expression unravel the epigenetic landscape in diabetes-related hypothyroidism.Clinical epigenetics · 2021Article
- Fatigability: A Prognostic Indicator of Phenotypic Aging.The journals of gerontology. Series A, Biological sciences and medical sciences · 2020Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
16 authors at 10 institutions in 6 countries.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundFatigue often triggers screening for and treatment of subclinical hypothyroidism. However, data on the impact of levothyroxine on fatigue is limited and previous studies might not have captured all aspects of fatigue.
methodThis study is nested within the randomized, placebo-controlled, multicenter TRUST trial, including community-dwelling participants aged ≥65 and older, with persistent subclinical hypothyroidism (TSH 4.60-19.99 mIU/L, normal free thyroxine levels) from Switzerland and Ireland. Interventions consisted of daily levothyroxine starting with 50 μg (25 μg if weight <50 kg or known coronary heart diseases) together with dose adjustments to achieve a normal TSH and mock titration in the placebo group. Main outcome was the change in physical and mental fatigability using the Pittsburgh Fatigability Scale over 1 year, assessed through multivariable linear regression with adjustment for country, sex, and levothyroxine starting dose.
resultsAmong 230 participants, the mean ± standard deviation (SD) TSH was 6.2 ± 1.9 mIU/L at baseline and decreased to 3.1 ± 1.3 with LT4 (n = 119) versus 5.3 ± 2.3 with placebo (n = 111, p < .001) after 1 year. After adjustment we found no between-group difference at 1 year on perceived physical (0.2; 95% CI -1.8 to 2.1; p = .88), or mental fatigability (-1.0; 95% CI -2.8 to 0.8; p = .26). In participants with higher fatigability at baseline (≥15 points for the physical score [n = 88] or ≥13 points for the mental score [n = 41]), the adjusted between-group differences at 1 year were 0.4 (95% CI -3.6 to 2.8, p = .79) and -2.2 (95% CI -8.8 to 4.5, p = .51).
conclusionsLevothyroxine in older adults with mild subclinical hypothyroidism provides no change in physical or mental fatigability.
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Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.