Mental Illness

[bluelotus]

Does anyone have a celiac in their family with mental illness? I have read that schizophrenia may be associated. Anyone experienced this? Curious b.c we may be dealing with this situation in our family..... Thanks for any insight.

[nettiebeads]

Does anyone have a celiac in their family with mental illness?  I have read that schizophrenia may be associated.  Anyone experienced this?  Curious b.c we may be dealing with this situation in our family.....  Thanks for any insight.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

No one else in my immediate family has celiac disease, but my mother's brother was definitly schizophrenic and one of her aunts was "sent away" (Remember, way back when mental illness was hushed up". I suspect my celiac disease came from my mother's side. No conclusive evidence, other than she's 100% Swedish.

[frenchiemama]

My mom's late sister is suspected to have had celiac disease. She had a "grain allergy" and eczema, which I think might have been undiagnosed (or improperly diagnosed) celiac disease and DH.

She had 9 kids. One of them has Borderline Personality Disorder and one of them was developmentally disabled. Some of the remaining kids have behavioral problems that might be an indication of mental illness, but it's hard to say because they are still pretty young and they have been through a lot of pain. (My aunt and her son were killed in an accident).

Of my mom's other siblings, one has what the family suspects to be Bipolar disorder and also has a severe substance abuse problem. My mom thinks that her mother might have had a mental illness as well, she was a very paranoid and rather abusive woman. My mom suffers from depression as well, and apparently non-celiac gluten intolerance.

[Jnkmnky]

Open Original Shared Link

I was looking into it awhile back and this is what I settled on as a reason.

[bluelotus]

Thanks for the info, everyone. I have to be careful what I say b/c family members of mine may be joining the forum shortly (been talking it up b/c I enjoy it, but that may have been a mistake where family is concerned). Anyway, the other person with celiac disease in my family is paranoid and believes she is being followed by this person that doesn't exist. Its kind of scary and I've told her my feelings before and she gets defensive and doesn't believe me. Then again, this all started after the movie The Beautiful Mind came out. Would someone be that desperate for attention that they would pretend to be sick like that? I don't know. She has even potentially lost jobs over this...... Not sure how to discuss it with her anymore..... Any advice on that would be appreciated too.

[Eliza13]

My brother has schizophrenia and obvious distention. I am trying to get him off gluten...he seems to be interested. I hope I am successful.

[skbird]

Bobcatgirl - I hear you on having the family on the forum. I will think - hey this is a good thread to send to my husband/mom/dad/brother, etc, and then think oh crap, I wrote this there... uh... oops! So I don't share it much. Not everyone appreciates honesty. I'm still getting crap from my dad from when I wrote in a column (I used to have a weekly column in our local daily paper) about how when I was 4 I let go of a balloon my dad bought me while we walked over a foot bridge and how he hoisted me up to try to catch the string and I was so terrified he was throwing me over the bridge I just started crying. I wrote it in a funny way but he's still pissed I was "airing the family's laundry" in my column...

Anyway, I don't think any schizophrenia in my family but I was erroneously diagnosed bipolar 10 years back and believed it for about 3... also had a lot of severe depression at times that never seemed to react much to the drugs. Gluten makes me very depressed when I get contaminated now. I'm sure there's a connection with many emotional disorders.

Stephanie

[bluelotus]

Honesty and family....suprising they dont' mix b/c these are the people that you are supposed to be closest too, right?

I appreciate all of the thoughtful replies. I wish there was more I could do for this family member. What is interesting is that her issues on being followed by this imaginary person fluctuate. I can go months without hearing about it, then all of a sudden, it will be all she talks about for a week. Sounds suspiciously like it may be associated with being glutened since it fluctuates like that, but who knows. Glad to know its not just my family though and I am not entiredly alone in experiencing this.

[Nantzie]

My grandmother on my mom's side was schizophrenic. She had an imaginary ob/gyn that she would "go to" because she thought she was pregnant. In reality, every once in a while, she would put her sweater on and get her purse, and then sit on the couch like she was waiting for someone to pick her up. After a while, she'd take off her sweater and put her purse away. Then later on she'd say she saw Dr. Anderson that day, when she really hadn't been anywhere. We always thought that she thought she was pregant because she had a distended stomach. But nobody put two and two together as far as possible celiac disease of course. She was also 100% Swedish. So now I'm pretty sure she had celiac disease. But then, my dad died of stomach cancer and my grandmother and great grandmother on my dad's side had severe osteoporosis and scoliosis. My grandmother also has some type of undiagnosed mental illness and is always accusing people of stealing things from her. I always thought that her symptoms closely matched bipolar, but she won't talk to anyone about any of it. It never occured to me until I was just thinking about it that it's possible that she perceives that "someone" is telling her that people are stealing her stuff, and she may be dealing with schizophrenia. But since she refuses to talk to anyone about it, we'll never know. I also heard that my great grandmother may have had some type of mental illness, but nothing as severe as my grandma.

Nancy

[nettiebeads]

I do know that when I've been glutened my perceptions are radically skewed. My only saving grace is that I'm already on zoloft and I know that the new depression is temporary.

[bluelotus]

I live out of state, away from this person, so I have always wondered what she does when she claims to she him or what others may do if she thinks she sees/hears him in public - how does she act? She also refuses to speak to someone as she is entirely convinced that the whole thing is real. I don't know what to do.....pretend along with her or tell her yet again what I believe is happening? She doesn't manage her celiac disease well at all and seems entirely ignorant of sources of contamination as well as the issue of "natural flavorings". Maybe if she did a better job on that end things will improve in the long run?

[debmidge]

My husband has had misdiagnosed celiac disease from 1977 to 2003 and during that time developed major, suicidal depression (can't take anti-depressants due to neurological side effects). After diagnosed in 2003 with celiac disease, depression lifted, but still exists and he has good and bad days now. He is 100% gluten-free all the time. I think the left over depression is from years of enduring with this mystery illness and now having to undo the damage the gluten has done.

[bluelotus]

Thanks again for all of the replies. The information is helpful. Just wish I knew the best way to deal with and help this person in my family. All is made even more difficult by the fact that I am out of state.

[clix]

I was misdiagnosed with schizophrenia in 1974. My uncle was a pathologist and had the biopsy done which confirmed celiac disease. I had bee suffering from malabsorbsion for three years before any psychiatric symptoms occurred. Within a week I was OK. Found one other case i know of here:

Journal of Internal medicine1997

Schizophrenic symptoms and SPECT abnormalities in a coeliac patient: regression after a gluten-free diet.

De Santis A, Addolorato G, Romito A, Caputo S, Giordano A, Gambassi G, Taranto C, Manna R, Gasbarrini G.

Department of Internal Medicine, Catholic University, Rome, Italy.

Patient was already dignosed schizophrenic presented with diarroeah and weight loss

Also the following study found celiac disease is a precursor for schizophrenia and that a small subset of schizophrenics may benefit from gluten free diet.

Coeliac disease and schizophrenia: population based case control study with linkage of Danish national registers

William Eaton, professor1, Preben Bo Mortensen, professor2, Esben Agerbo, assistant professor2, Majella Byrne, assistant professor2, Ole Mors, associate professor3, Henrik Ewald, professor3

1 Department of Mental Health, Bloomberg School of Public Health, Johns Hopkins University, 624 North Broadway, Baltimore, MD 21205, USA, 2 National Centre for Register-Based Research, Aarhus University, Taasingegade 1, 8000 Aarhus C, Denmark, 3 Institute of Basic Psychiatric Research, Psychiatric Hospital in Aarhus, Skovagervej 2, 8240 Risskov, Denmark

Correspondence to: W W Eaton weaton@jhsph.edu

found celiac diseaese is a risk factor for schizophenia (only cases with prediagnosed celiac diseaese were included)

You may also like to check out whether your relative is deficient in certain minerals and I cannot recommend more highly that you investigate Omega3 and 6 supplements as these are showing some amazing success with mental symptoms also in bipolar .

Currently I am gluten free and take 10 mg olanzapine and 4mg reboxotine, 5ml emu oil for essential fatty acids

Since taking the emu oil my chronic dry skin has improved, it was still dry and scaly on the gluten free diet alone.

[hannahsue01]

My self diagnoses of myself is bibolar disorder. Many of my family on both sides have had many mental disorders. Obsesive Difiant Disorder.....ADD....ADHD.....learning problems ..... depression.... bibolar.... whatever it's called when you don't want to be social.....and probably others that I have not been told about. I don't really have any advice on how to confront your family members. It was actually just last night that I told someone other than my husband. Then that person accused me of starving my baby. My baby has a feeding tube and has not been taking much from a bottle since her first one 6 months ago.....but she was born 3 months early and the doctors say that it is not unuassual......she said that she thought I was to depressed to feed my kids.....but the truth is that no matter how bad I feel I always make sure that my kids' needs are met.....the only advice I have is be carefull on how you state things and what you say. If they are not at terms with what may be wrong with them they may become defensive. I have had this problem for probably 10 years or more but didn't want to admit it till about 6 months ago.

[lurven71]

When I get glutenated, I have the symptoms of mental illness. I have paranoia and hallucinations. It is terrifying, but for me it goes away completely when I am gluten free.

[LKelly8]

Some support links:

Open Original Shared Link

Open Original Shared Link

Open Original Shared Link

[Guest ~jules~]

My brother is bi-polar, there is family history of depression, and I am a raging co-dependent. I'm not sure if there are any multiples out there though, I don't know much of my family other than my parents and siblings.

[jerseyangel]

When I'm glutened, all of my depression, anxiety and parinoia comes back. These are harder to deal with, for me, than the physical things. I didn't realize how bad it was prior to diagnosis--until it bagan to get better. There are others in my family who suffer from depression--they are not diagnosed, as far as I know, but all the signs are there.

[KarenLee]

My mother had mental problems(In early 70's, Dr.'s first said schizophrenia, then years later, manic depressive). At age 49, she died of colon cancer that had spread to her liver! Hmmmm..I wonder if she had Celiac all along!!?