Background: Coeliac disease in adolescents has been associated with an increased prevalence of depressive and disruptive behavioural disorders, particularly in the phase before diet treatment. We studied the possible effects of a gluten-free diet on psychiatric symptoms, on hormonal status (prolactin, thyroidal function) and on large neutral amino acid serum concentrations in adolescents with coeliac disease commencing a gluten-free diet.

No abstract

No abstract

Coeliac disease (CD) occasionally presents solely with neuropsychiatric symptoms and may predispose to mental and behavioural disorders. This study screened new adolescent psychiatric outpatients (n= 140) in the Department of Adolescent Psychiatry of the Hospital for Children and Adolescents, Helsinki, using immunoglobulin A antibody to tissue transglutaminase. The prevalence rate of CD was found to be 1 in 140. Conclusion: The results do not suggest that undetected CD is markedly overrepresented among adolescent psychiatric outpatients.