Hostname: page-component-848d4c4894-x5gtn Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-05-09T12:12:15.475Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Schizophrenia and coeliac disease – the nature of the relationship

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  09 July 2009

F. M. Stevens ,
R. S. Lloyd ,
S. M. J. Geraghty ,
M. T. G. Reynolds ,
M. J. Sarsfield ,
B. McNicholl ,
P. F. Fottrell ,
R. Wright  and
C. F. McCarthy
F. M. Stevens*
Affiliation:
Regional Hospital, Galway; University College, Galway; St Mary's Hospital, Castlebar, Co. Mayo; St Patrick's Hospital, Castlerea, Roscommon, Ireland; and the University of Southampton
R. S. Lloyd
Affiliation:
Regional Hospital, Galway; University College, Galway; St Mary's Hospital, Castlebar, Co. Mayo; St Patrick's Hospital, Castlerea, Roscommon, Ireland; and the University of Southampton
S. M. J. Geraghty
Affiliation:
Regional Hospital, Galway; University College, Galway; St Mary's Hospital, Castlebar, Co. Mayo; St Patrick's Hospital, Castlerea, Roscommon, Ireland; and the University of Southampton
M. T. G. Reynolds
Affiliation:
Regional Hospital, Galway; University College, Galway; St Mary's Hospital, Castlebar, Co. Mayo; St Patrick's Hospital, Castlerea, Roscommon, Ireland; and the University of Southampton
M. J. Sarsfield
Affiliation:
Regional Hospital, Galway; University College, Galway; St Mary's Hospital, Castlebar, Co. Mayo; St Patrick's Hospital, Castlerea, Roscommon, Ireland; and the University of Southampton
B. McNicholl
Affiliation:
Regional Hospital, Galway; University College, Galway; St Mary's Hospital, Castlebar, Co. Mayo; St Patrick's Hospital, Castlerea, Roscommon, Ireland; and the University of Southampton
P. F. Fottrell
Affiliation:
Regional Hospital, Galway; University College, Galway; St Mary's Hospital, Castlebar, Co. Mayo; St Patrick's Hospital, Castlerea, Roscommon, Ireland; and the University of Southampton
R. Wright
Affiliation:
Regional Hospital, Galway; University College, Galway; St Mary's Hospital, Castlebar, Co. Mayo; St Patrick's Hospital, Castlerea, Roscommon, Ireland; and the University of Southampton
C. F. McCarthy
Affiliation:
Regional Hospital, Galway; University College, Galway; St Mary's Hospital, Castlebar, Co. Mayo; St Patrick's Hospital, Castlerea, Roscommon, Ireland; and the University of Southampton
*
1Address for correspondence: Dr F. M. Stevens, Research Registrar, Department of Gastroenterology, Regional Hospital, Galway, Ireland.
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Synopsis

To test the hypothesis of an association between schizophrenia and coeliac disease, the sera of 380 chronic schizophrenic in-patients in two mental hospitals in the West of Ireland have been screened for the presence of reticulin antibodies. Antibodies were found in 26 patients. Twenty-one of these patients were further studied by proximal duodenal mucosal biopsy. None of the biopsies showed the morphological and histological features found in untreated coeliac disease. The incidence of reticulin antibodies in schizophrenic patients and controls is similar. The findings of this study lead to the rejection of the hypothesis of a positive genetic relationship between schizophrenia and coeliac disease.

Type
Research Article
Information
Psychological Medicine , Volume 7 , Issue 2 , May 1977 , pp. 259 - 263
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1977

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

REFERENCES

Annals of Internal Medicine (1976). Dietary Factors and Schizophrenia, 84, 745.Google Scholar
Bender, L. (1953). Childhood schizophrenia. Psychiatric Quarterly 27, 663–681.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Booth, C. C. (1970). Enterocyte in coeliac disease I. British Medical Journal iii, 725–731.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Brown, I. L., Ferguson, A., Carswell, F., Horne, C. H. W. & MacSween, R. N. M. (1973). Autoantibodies in children with coeliac disease. Clinical and Experimental Immunology 13, 373–382.Google ScholarPubMed
Buscaino, V. M. (1953). Pathologia extraneurale della schizofrenia. Acta Neurologica (Napoli) 8, 1–60.Google Scholar
Cappell, D. F. & Anderson, J. R. (eds.) (1971). Spleen, lymph nodes, thymus. In Muir's Textbook of Pathology, pp. 448–470. Edward Arnold: London.Google Scholar
Dahlqvist, A. (1968). Assay of intestinal disaccharidases. Analytical Biochemistry 22, 99–107.Google Scholar
Dawson, W. S. (1923). A study of the endocrine – autonomic disorders of dementia praecox. Journal of Mental Science 69, 182–199.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dean, G., Hanniffy, L., Stevens, F. M., Temperley, I., O'Broin, J. D., Scott, J. & Cahalane, S. F. (1975). Schizophrenia and coeliac disease. Journal of the Irish Medical Association 68, 545–546.Google Scholar
Dohan, F. C. (1966). Cereals and schizophrenia: data and hypothesis. Acta Psychiatrica Scandinavica 42, 125–152.Google Scholar
Dohan, F. C. (1969). Schizophrenia: possible relationship to cereal grains and celiac disease. Schizophrenia – Current Concepts and Research (ed. Siva Sanker, D. V.), pp. 539–551. PJD Publications: Hicksville, NY.Google Scholar
Dohan, F. C. & Grasberger, J. C. (1973). Relapsed schizophrenics earlier discharge from the hospital after cereal-free milk-free diet. American Journal of Psychiatry 130, 685–688.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Dohan, F. C., Grasberger, J. C., Lowell, F. M., Johnston, H. T. & Arbegast, A. W. (1969). Relapsed schizophrenics: more rapid improvement on milk and cereal-free diet. British Journal of Psychiatry 115, 595–596.Google Scholar
Eisenberg, L. (1967). Psychiatric disorders of childhood. III. Psychotic and brain disorders. In Comprehensive Textbook of Psychiatry (ed. Freedman, A. M. and Kaplan, H. I.), pp. 1433–1438. Williams and Williams: Baltimore.Google Scholar
Ferguson, A. & Murray, D. (1971). Quantitation of intraepithelial lymphocytes in human jejunum. Gut 12, 988–994.Google Scholar
Fry, L., Seah, P. P., McMinn, R. M. H. & Hoffbrand, A. V. (1972). Lymphocytic infiltration of epithelium in diagnosis of gluten-sensitive enteropathy. British Medical Journal iii, 371–374.Google Scholar
Goodwin, M. S. & Goodwin, T. C. (1969). In a dark mirror. Mental Hygiene 53, 550–563.Google Scholar
Graff, H. & Handford, A. (1961). Celiac syndrome in the case histories of five schizophrenics. Psychiatric Quarterly 35, 306–313.Google Scholar
Kanner, L. (1944). Early infantile autism. Journal of Pediatrics 25, 211–217.Google Scholar
Kelly, M. H. & Hamilton, J. R. (1970). A microtechnique for the assay intestinal alkaline phosphatase. Results in normal children and in children with coeliac disease. Clinical Biochemistry 3, 33–43.Google Scholar
Lancet (1976). Gluten and schizophrenia i, 844.Google Scholar
Lowry, O. H., Rosebrough, N. J., Farr, A. L. & Randall, R.J. (1951). Protein measurement with the folin phenol reagent. Journal of Biological Chemistry 193, 265–275.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Marchi, A. G., Tuvo, F. & Nordio, S. (1974). Child autism and gluten intolerance. Acta Paediatrica Scandinavica 63, 165.Google Scholar
Meyer, F. von (1935). Anatomisch-Histologische Untersuchungen an Schizophrenen. Monatsschrift für Psychiatrie und Neurologie 91, 185–212.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mylotte, M., Egan-Mitchell, B., McCarthy, C. F. & McNicholl, B. (1973). Incidence of coeliac disease in the west of Ireland. British Medical Journal i, 703–705.Google Scholar
O'Reilly, D., Murphy, J., McLaughlin, J., Bradshaw, J. & Dean, G. (1974). Prevalence of coeliac disease and cystic fibrosis in Ireland, Scotland, England and Wales. International Journal of Epidemiology 3, 247–251.Google Scholar
Reiter, P. J. (1929). Zur Pathologie der Dementia Praecox. Gastrointestinale Störungen, ihre Klinische und ätiologische Bedeutung. Levin and Munksgaard: Copenhagen.Google Scholar
Rizzetto, M. & Doniach, D. (1973). Types of reticulin antibodies detected in human sera by immunofluorescence. Journal of Clinical Pathology 26, 841–851.Google Scholar
Seah, P. P., Fry, L., Hoffbrand, A. V. & Holborow, E. J. (1971). Tissue antibodies in dermatitis herpetiformis and adult coeliac disease. Lancet i, 834–836.Google Scholar
Singh, M. M. & Kay, S. R. (1976). Wheat gluten as a pathologic factor in schizophrenia. Science 191, 401–402.Google Scholar
Stevens, F. M. & McCarthy, C. F. (1976). The endoscopic demonstration of coeliac disease. Endoscopy 8, 177–180.Google Scholar
Stevens, F. M., Lloyd, R., Egan-Mitchell, B., Mylotte, M. J., Fottrell, P. F., McNicholl, B. & McCarthy, C. F. (1975 a). Reticulin antibodies in patients with coeliac disease and their relatives. Gut 16, 598–602.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Stevens, F. M., Lloyd, R., Geraghty, S., Reynolds, M., Sarsfield, J., Wright, R. & McCarthy, C. F. (1975 b). Schizophrenia and coeliac disease. Is there a positive relationship? Irish Journal of Medical Science 144, 75.Google Scholar
Stokes, P. L. & Holmes, G. K. T. (1974). Malignancy. Clinics in Gastroenterology, 3rd edn (ed. Cooke, W. T. and Asquith, P.), pp. 159–170. W. B. Saunders: London.Google Scholar
Walsh, D. & Walsh, B. (1970). Mental illness in the Republic of Ireland, first admission. Journal of the Irish Medical Association 63, 365–370.Google Scholar
Whitehead, R. (1971). Ischaemic enterocolitis: an expression of the intravascular coagulation syndrome. Gut 12, 912–917.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed