ArticleThe Journal of clinical endocrinology and metabolism2021
Effects of Thyroid Status on Regional Brain Volumes: A Diagnostic and Genetic Imaging Study in UK Biobank.
Article in The Journal of clinical endocrinology and metabolism, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 17 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
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Who cites it
17 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 28 citations in OpenAlex.
- Evaluation of thyroid function tests among children with neurological disorders.Frontiers in endocrinology · 2024Pooled it
- Controlled Antenatal Thyroid Screening Study III: Effects of Gestational Thyroid Status on Adolescent Brain Morphology.The Journal of clinical endocrinology and metabolism · 2025Trial
- Thyroid hormones are associated with pituitary and thyroid volume in a population-based study.Journal of the Endocrine Society · 2026Article
- Association of hippocampus, entorhinal cortex, and amygdala with thyroid function: a bilateral volumetric analysis.Thyroid research · 2026Article
- Plant-derived nutritional components in thyroid disease-related neuropsychiatric disorders: mechanistic insights and advances.Frontiers in nutrition · 2026Review
- Why menstrual cycle irregularities belong in brain research.Nature medicine · 2025Article
- Article
- Review
- Mapping Thyroid Hormone Action in the Human Brain.Thyroid : official journal of the American Thyroid Association · 2024Review
- Associations Between Thyroid Hormones Levels and Gray Matter Volume of Frontal Lobe Involved into Violence in Male Schizophrenia Patients.Neuropsychiatric disease and treatment · 2024Article
- Gray matter reduction is associated with cognitive dysfunction in depressed patients comorbid with subclinical hypothyroidism.Frontiers in aging neuroscience · 2023Article
- Serum TSH Levels are Associated with Hyperactivity Behaviors in Children with Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder.Neuropsychiatric disease and treatment · 2023Article
- New Horizons: the value of UK Biobank to research on endocrine and metabolic disorders.The Journal of clinical 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
- Impaired sensitivity to thyroid hormones and carotid plaque in patients with coronary heart disease: A RCSCD-TCM study in China.Frontiers in endocrinology · 2022Article
- The Correlation Between Thyroid Function, Frontal Gray Matter, and Executive Function in Patients With Major Depressive Disorder.Frontiers in endocrinology · 2021Article
- Myxedema coma complicated by bilateral hygromas.Endocrinology, diabetes & metabolism case reports · 2021Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
8 authors at 4 institutions in 3 countries.
Funding
Abstract
backgroundThyroid hormone is essential for optimal human neurodevelopment and may modify the risk of attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). However, the brain structures involved are unknown and it is unclear if the adult brain is also susceptible to changes in thyroid status.
methodsWe used International Classification of Disease-10 codes, polygenic thyroid scores at different thresholds of association with thyroid traits (PT-values), and image-derived phenotypes in UK Biobank (n = 18 825) to investigate the effects of a recorded diagnosis of thyroid disease and genetic risk for thyroid status on cerebellar and subcortical gray matter volume. Regional genetic pleiotropy between thyroid status and ADHD was explored using the GWAS-pairwise method.
resultsA recorded diagnosis of hypothyroidism (n = 419) was associated with significant reductions in total cerebellar and pallidum gray matter volumes (β [95% CI] = -0.14[-0.23, -0.06], P = 0.0005 and β [95%CI] = -0.12 [-0.20, -0.04], P = 0.0042, respectively), mediated in part by increases in body mass index. While we found no evidence for total cerebellar volume alterations with increased polygenic scores for any thyroid trait, opposing influences of increased polygenic scores for hypo- and hyperthyroidism were found in the pallidum (PT < 1e-3: β [95% CI] = -0.02 [-0.03, -0.01], P = 0.0003 and PT < 1e-7: β [95% CI] = 0.02 [0.01, 0.03], P = 0.0003, respectively). Neither hypo- nor hyperthyroidism showed evidence of regional genetic pleiotropy with ADHD.
conclusionsThyroid status affects gray matter volume in adults, particularly at the level of the cerebellum and pallidum, with potential implications for the regulation of motor, cognitive, and affective function.
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