The Effects of Synbiotic Supplementation on Fatigue Management and Mental Health Status in Levothyroxine-Treated Patients with Hypothyroidism: A Randomized, Double-Blind, Placebo-Controlled Clinical Trial Study

No studies thus far have addressed the efficacy of probiotics, especially synbiotics, on management and improving the symptoms of hypothyroidism. The aim of this study was to investigate the effects of synbiotic supplementation in fatigue management and mental health status in patients with hypothyroidism on levothyroxine treatment.

This study was conducted as a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled clinical trial. Sixty patients with levothyroxine-treated hypothyroidism were randomly divided into two groups to receive either 500 mg/day of synbiotic (n = 30) or a placebo (n = 30) for 8 weeks.

Synbiotic supplementation led to a significant decrease in general fatigue (P = 0.002) in synbiotic group. In the synbiotic group, other aspects of fatigue showed a decreasing trend, whereas the changes were not statistically significant. In addition, synbiotic supplementation significantly reduced the anxiety score in the synbiotic group at the end of the study (P = 0.028), while no significant effect was found from probiotics on depression, anxiety, and stress score in the intervention group compared to the placebo group.

Synbiotic supplementation for 8 weeks may have beneficial effects on general fatigue and anxiety among the patients with hypothyroidism, whereas these effects were not statistically significant between the two groups. Synbiotic supplements can be considered as a therapeutic strategy to improve the symptoms of patients with hypothyroidism. Further studies with larger sample size and longer duration are needed to confirm the current findings.