Coeliac disease may manifest itseslf as psychosis.
At a course for doctors in nutritional treatment in psychiatry that I
attended a year ago in Sydney one point made by the staff of Pfeiffer
Center of Chicago (www.hriptc.org)was that 4% of psychotic cases are due
to coeliac disease.
Immediately I started doing coeliac screening of all my patients with a
history of psychosis. The very first positive one,who had relatively minor
bowel discomfort, was a 38 year old lady with a 20 year history of bipolar
disorder and numerous admissions for chronic severe depression. A few
weeks after starting a gluten-free diet her depression lifted and she has
remained well since. I believe that all patients with psychotic illness
should be screened.The thought that thousands of people are suffering
mental torture when a simple blood test could lead the way to dramatically
improving their mental health sounds almost too good to be true but true
it is.
Rapid Response:
Coeliac disease may manifest itseslf as psychosis.
At a course for doctors in nutritional treatment in psychiatry that I
attended a year ago in Sydney one point made by the staff of Pfeiffer
Center of Chicago (www.hriptc.org)was that 4% of psychotic cases are due
to coeliac disease.
Immediately I started doing coeliac screening of all my patients with a
history of psychosis. The very first positive one,who had relatively minor
bowel discomfort, was a 38 year old lady with a 20 year history of bipolar
disorder and numerous admissions for chronic severe depression. A few
weeks after starting a gluten-free diet her depression lifted and she has
remained well since. I believe that all patients with psychotic illness
should be screened.The thought that thousands of people are suffering
mental torture when a simple blood test could lead the way to dramatically
improving their mental health sounds almost too good to be true but true
it is.
Competing interests:
None declared
Competing interests: No competing interests