Correlation of thyroxine and thyroid-stimulating hormone with personality measurements: a study in psychosomatic patients and healthy subjects.

A comparative study performed in psychosomatic patients and healthy subjects reveals different profiles of thyroxine (T4) and thyroid-stimulating hormone (TSH) correlations with personality measurements (Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI); Sensation-Seeking Scale (SSS), and Susceptibility to Punishment Scale (SP). Three distinct sets of results may be enumerated, namely: (1) a negative correlation between sensation-seeking and TSH; (2) a positive correlation between the most indicative scales predisposing to depression-anxiety (hypochondriasis, depression, social introversion, susceptibility to punishment) and T4, and (3) the Hypomania Scale (Ma) showed a significant negative correlation with T4 in the patient group and a positive but nonsignificant relationship in the healthy group.