Thyroid drug ‘useless for most adults’

HUNDREDS of thousands of Britons who use a drug to treat an underactive thyroid get no benefit, according to experts.

Levothyroxine is widely prescribed for symptoms like depression, tiredness and muscle aches.

But an international team of academics wrote in the British Medical Journal: “Almost all adults would not benefit from thyroid hormones.”

They looked at data on more than 2,000 people.

The team said the findings did not apply to those trying to get pregnant or for severe cases.

There were more than 32 million prescriptions for levothyroxine in England last year.