Thyroid disease can hurt babies of untreated moms
Untreated thyroid disease poses risk to unborn
Untreated thyroid disease during pregnancy may hinder a child’s psychological development, resulting in significantly lower IQ scores, decreased motor skills, and impaired attention, language, and reading abilities, according to a study conducted by the Foundation for Blood Research in Scarborough, ME.
Results of the study indicate that women with untreated thyroid deficiency during pregnancy are nearly four times more likely to have children with lower IQ scores. Findings include:
• 19% of the children born to mothers whose thyroid deficiency was undetected scored 85 or less on the IQ testing, compared with only 5% of those born to mothers with normal thyroid function during pregnancy.
• On average, IQ scores of the children whose mothers were untreated for thyroid deficiencies during pregnancy were seven points lower than those of the children in the control group. In fact, a score of 107 was the average among the control group children, compared with the 85 or less for mothers with thyroid deficiency.
Researchers stored blood samples from 25,216 women who received routine prenatal care in New England states between 1987 and 1990. During their pregnancies, all of the women received appropriate medical care, and all known cases of thyroid disease were treated.
In 1996 and 1997, researchers tested all of the stored blood samples for thyroid deficiency using the thyroid-stimulating hormone, or TSH, tests. From the overall study population, 62 mothers with thyroid disease were identified. Of the 62 women with hypothyroidism, 48 were not known to be thyroid deficient during their pregnancy. The other 14 were known to have hypothyroid ism but did not receive adequate treatment for the condition during their pregnancies.
To establish a comparison, 124 children born to women with normal thyroid function were chosen for testing. Children in both groups, a total of 186, underwent a series of IQ tests between ages 7 and 9. The tests were administered by certified psychologists and supervised by the project’s consulting psychologist. Neither the children nor the psychologists knew whether they were cases or controls.
Tests included:
• Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children, 3rd edition. (WISC-III);
• Peabody Individual Achievement Test, revised;
• Continuous Performance Tests;
• Test for Language Development, 2nd edition;
• Development Test of Visual Motor Integration;
• a pegboard test.
At the end of the study, the women with undiagnosed thyroid disease during their pregnancies were contacted to determine whether their hypo thyroidism was subsequently diagnosed. The researchers found that 64% of the previously undiagnosed women had confirmed hypothyroidism at the time of follow-up. The average time to diagnosis was five years.
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