Addison's disease
Cause
In the UK and Europe, Addison's disease is most commonly caused by the body’s immune system mistakenly attacking and destroying the cells of the adrenal glands. This type of Addison’s is called autoimmune Addison’s disease.
Infection: Addison's can also be caused by an infection (such as tuberculosis or HIV) damaging the adrenal glands.
Incidence
- In the UK, Addison’s disease affects approximately 1 in 10,000 people, meaning an estimated 300 - 350 new cases are diagnosed each year.
- Diagnosis is most common between the ages of 30-50, but can occur at any age.
- Around two to three times more women than men get this disease, because autoimmunity is more common in women.
- Those people with other autoimmune diseases, such as Graves’ disease, hypothyroidism, type 1 diabetes, pernicious anaemia and vitiligo, have a greater risk of also developing autoimmune Addison’s disease. Likewise, people with autoimmune Addison's have a greater risk of developing another autoimmune condition...
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Signs and symptoms of Addison's
Addison's shares many of the same signs and symptoms as other types of adrenal insufficiency, but as the adrenal gland does not produce any cortisol, aldosterone or DHEA, it also has some additional signs:
Hyperpigmentation of the skin and mucosal layers: patches of skin, or whole areas of the body such as the hands, will look sun-tanned, in spite of the person not having been in the sun. The colour of the skin will deepen over time.
Salt cravings
Due to a lack of aldosterone in the body (which helps balance salt/fluid intake), people will experience salt cravings.
They may be quite subtle to start with, and many people will have adjusted their diet without noticing, e.g. putting more salt on their meals, eating more crisps or salty snacks, drinking cup-a-soups etc.
Common signs & symptoms of adrenal insufficiency
Other forms of Primary adrenal insufficiency
There are several different types of adrenal insufficiency. Primary adrenal insufficiency is when the adrenal glands fail to produce enough of some essential steroid hormones, mainly cortisol, and aldosterone. This can be due to a number of different reasons.
In adults, Addison's disease, which we talk about on this page, is the most common cause; estimated to be in 70-90% of cases in Europe (Betterle C, Presotto F, Furmaniak J. Epidemiology, pathogenesis and diagnosis of Addison's disease in Adults. J Endocrinol Invest. 2019 Dec; 42 (12): 1407-1433)
In children, Congential Adrenal Hyperplasia is the leading cause.
