Thyroid Disorders on Adhesive Capsulitis: Examining the Role of IL-6 and CRP in Acute and Chronic Pain Stages

Objective: Thyroid dysfunction is a known risk factor for adhesive capsulitis (AC), but prior studies have relied on single-domain outcomes without formal inferential comparison between thyroid subtypes. No Indian study has examined, within one cohort using validated multidomain instruments, whether physical, psychological, and functional burden in thyroid-related AC differs by subtype. This study assessed prevalence and distribution of physical activity, sleep quality, psychological morbidity, kinesiophobia, functional disability, quality of life, pain, and irritability in patients with AC and co-existing hyperthyroidism or hypothyroidism, stratified by disease duration, and tested for association between subtype and each domain.
Methods: A prospective observational cohort enrolled 46 patients aged 40–60 years with diagnosed AC and thyroid dysfunction, stratified by subtype and disease duration (≤1, 2–4, ≥5 years). Validated instruments assessed each domain. Fisher's exact test evaluated subtype–outcome associations, appropriate given small cell sizes (as low as n=2 in some strata); duration-stratified comparisons remained descriptive.
Results: Physical inactivity, poor sleep, psychological distress, kinesiophobia, disability, pain, and irritability were prevalent throughout the cohort. Only poor sleep quality showed a significant subtype association, more frequent in hyperthyroid than hypothyroid participants (69.5% vs 30.0%; p=0.015). No significant associations emerged for the remaining seven domains (p=0.669–1.000), though descriptive differences were noted and considered hypothesis-generating.
Conclusion: This is the first duration-stratified, multi-instrument, formally tested characterisation of burden in Indian thyroid-associated AC patients. Sleep quality alone differed significantly by subtype; other observed differences require confirmation in larger, adequately powered cohorts.