Case Report
Abstaining Opioid Drugs as a Possible Risk Factor for Graves’ Disease
Shahin Banaei-Boroujeni1*, Azam Ghanei2, Golnaz Malekzadeh3, Mehdi Mirzaei-Alvijeh3 and Ehsan Zarepur31Shahid Sadoughi University of Medical Sciences, Yazd, Iran
2Internal medicine department, Shahid Sadoughi University of Medical Sciences, Yazd, Iran
3Student research committee, Shahid Sadoughi University of Medical Sciences, Yazd, Iran
- *Corresponding Author:
- Shahin Banaei-Boroujeni
Shahid Sadoughi University of Medical Sciences, Yazd, Iran
Tel: 09356506938
E-mail: shbanaei@gmail.com
Received July 10, 2012; Accepted August 08, 2012; Published August 10, 2012
Citation: Banaei-Boroujeni S, Ghanei A, Malekzadeh G, Mirzaei-Alvijeh M, Zarepur (2012) Abstaining Opioid Drugs as a Possible Risk Factor for Graves’ Disease. J Addict Res Ther 3:131. doi:10.4172/2155-6105.1000131
Copyright: © 2012 Banaei-Boroujeni S, et al. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
Abstract
Introduction: Graves’ disease is an autoimmune disease with obscure etiology. It may be associated with an underlying emotional stress of any kind. On the other hand abstaining opioid drugs’ addiction is a major stress that can develop this disease. Confronting several patients who were attacked by Graves’ disease, with the history of opioid abstinence led us to investigate them more and report the findings. Methods: In this case series study 46 patients who were addicted to opioid drugs and have abandoned it less than 9 months from the admission time to endocrinologist were investigated. They all presented the signs and symptoms of Graves’ disease. Thyroid function tests consist of T3, T4 and TSH were measured for each patient and compared against the ones before opioid abstinence. Statistical analysis was performed by using T- Test and SPSS 18.0 software. Results: 46 patients, which include 2 women and 44 men were studied. The lab results before opioid abstinence confirmed that all were euthyriod. The serum level of T3 increased from 126.3026 ± 34.2356 ng/dl to 311.3696 ± 79.80932 ng/dl after opioid abstinence, this level for T4 also increased from 8.1130 ± 1.54684 ng/dl to 18.4674 ± 3.5589 ng/dl. The difference between thyroid hormone before and after opioid abstinence was statistically significant (P<0.05). The serum level of TSH decreased from 1.3457 ± 0.68043 ng/dl to 0.0289 ± 0.0294 ng/dl which was also statistically significant (P<0.05). Conclusion: Opioid drugs’ abstinence may develop Graves’ disease. More investigation is suggested.
