Thyrotoxicosis, Traumatic Neurosis, and the Dangerous Environment

Abstract

There has been less attention paid in the literature of recent years to the onset of thyrotoxicosis following a sudden and overwhelmingly traumatic incident. The patient described in this report experienced both thyrotoxicosis and traumatic neurosis soon after he had been in a bus accident. The difficulties in differentiating between some of his symptoms of these two disorders suggested a relationship between thyrotoxicosis and traumatic neurosis. These similarities were inspected in terms of our clinical understanding of these syndromes. Further hypotheses are presented concerning the psychophysiologic mechanisms of normal and abnormal thyroid function.