Challenges of Thyroid Disorders
Thyroid disorders are wide spread and hard to diagnose. Thyroid disorders affect people at all ages in life and can affect family relationships and employment on a long term basis. Treatment is easy but patient dissatisfaction with treatment is common. Surveys show lower quality of life among people diagnosed with thyroid disorders. Surveys also show that people treated for thyroid disorders commonly do not have thyroid hormone levels in the ‘normal range’ suggesting that either treatment is not effective, compliance is low or blood thyroid hormone levels are not related to patient well being.
The gaps in quality of life need to be addressed either by changes to treatment, adjustment to expectations regarding recovery and ways to improve symptom management.
Patients’ perceptions that they are not ‘well’ need to be acknowledged and validated by their physicians and family members. Doctors seldom tell patients they will not be ‘better’ while patients assume they will. It is possible that doctors are not aware of the longer term outcomes of patients with thyroid disorders.
