Childhood Celiac Disease Linked to More Psychiatric Disorders

Celiac.com 08/25/2020 - A number of studies describe psychological disorders, in addition to other extra intestinal manifestations of celiac disease, such as fatigue, neurological conditions including headache and neuropathy. However,  there hasn't been study with robust enough data to provide accurate risk estimates.

In an effort to obtain accurate risk estimates, Jonas F. Ludvigsson, MD, PhD, of the department of medical epidemiology and biostatistics at Karolinska Institutet in Sweden, and colleagues analyzed data from the Swedish nationwide ESPRESSO cohort to explore associations between childhood celiac disease and psychiatric disorders. 

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They matched nearly 20,000 children with biopsy verified celiac with up to five of 100,000 reference children, and gathered data on psychiatric disorders from the patient register.

During a follow-up period of just over 12 years, nearly 17% of 3,174 children with celiac disease were diagnosed with a psychiatric disorder, compared with about 14% of the 13,286 control subjects. People with childhood celiac disease had a nearly 20% increase in risk for any psychiatric disorder, an increase seen in every childhood age group. 

Specifically, celiac patients faced elevated risks for mood disorders, anxiety disorders, eating disorders, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, autism spectrum disorder, and increased use of psychiatric drugs. The risk was highest in the first year after celiac diagnosis, but continued into adulthood.

The results of this study underline the importance of mental health monitoring in people diagnosed with celiac disease as children. Because of the elevated risk of psychiatric disorder, the team advises that people diagnosed with celiac disease in childhood receive both physical and mental monitoring into adulthood.

Stay tuned for more on this and related stories. 

Read more at Healio.com.