Low-Dose Naltrexone Treatment of Hashimoto’s Thyroiditis

Chronic lymphocytic thyroiditis, also known as Hashimoto’s thyroiditis, is the most common cause of spontaneously occurring hypothyroidism in adults in the United States. Treatment for this condition is thyroid hormone replacement once hypothyroidism develops since there is no known effective treatment to halt the underlying thyroiditis that eventually destroys the thyroid gland. Selenium supplements have been reported to reduce anti-thyroid antibody titers significantly but not to prevent the eventual development of hypothyroidism. Low-dose naltrexone (LDN) has been promoted in books and on Internet websites as an effective treatment to reduce thyroid inflammation and symptoms in patients with this condition. However, there is no published scientific data to substantiate these claims.