Psychosomatic Medicine 27:508-523 (1965)
© 1965 American Psychosomatic Society

Thyroid "Hot Spots": A Psychophysiological Study

¹ Department of Research, The Menninger Foundation, Topeka, Kans.

An attempt to predict the susceptibility to thyrotoxicosis is reported. The investigation focused on people who, although otherwise euthyroid, show foci in the thyroid gland that are hyperavid for iodine ("hot spots"). We assessed the incidence of hot spots in several populations and studied whether hot spots are associated with specific personality characteristics like those typical of patients with thyrotoxicosis. The incidence of hot spots is highest in patients referred to us by physicians, next highest in randomly selected subjects, next in volunteers, and lowest in hospitalized psychiatric patients. There is some support for the theory of an association between hot spots and character patterns typical of thyrotoxic patients. Follow-up studies are in progress to determine whether hot spots define a population of those susceptible to thyrotoxicosis.