Mahsa Houshdar
Hooshdar Medical Technology Company, Iran
Title: The prevalence of reactive hypoglycemia in patients with methamphetamine abuse
Biography
Biography: Mahsa Houshdar
Abstract
Introduction
Regarding to the fact that hypothyroidism can cause reactive hypoglycemia, measuring the prevalence of hypothyroidism in methamphetamine abuser patients can guide us to the reason of the existence of reactive hypoglycemia in the methamphetamine abuser patients1.
Method
We visited all the patients that suffer from methamphetamine abuse and who referred to “Afarinesh” addiction clinic (Karaj, Iran); we asked them if they have any history of hypothyroidism or not. If the answer was negative, we measured serum their TSH level.
Result
15 of the volunteers were suitable for this study. All of them were men and the range of their ages was between 25 to 47 years. The average of their ages was 31.06 years.
In two of the patients that got inspected in this study, the serum TSH level was higher than 5mU/L. In one of them, serum TSH level was higher than 10mU/L. This study shows that 13.3 percent of the patients with methamphetamine abuse suffer from subclinical hypothyroidism2. The overall prevalence of hypothyroidism was 4.8% [95% confidence interval (CI) 3.7, 6.1] in men and 12.8% (95% CI 10.9, 14.6) in women3. As we see in methamphetamine abuser men, It is three fold higher than normal population.
Conclusion
Regarding to the percentage of the methamphetamine abuser patients that suffer from hypothyroidism, the rate of hypothyroidism in men who are methamphetamine abuser are about three fold higher than normal population. According this finding, the Tehran Institute of Psychiatry must decide if a case control study in this issue is useful or not.