Celiac Disease Is Associated With Mental Health Issues in Children, Parents

New research reveals that children with celiac disease (CD) and their parents are more likely to have mental health issues like anxiety and depression at diagnosis than healthy controls.

Researchers sought to compare the mental health statuses of children with CD and their parents to the statuses of healthy controls, and to determine whether and how mental health is affected by a gluten-free diet (GFD).

The study participants included 50 children with CD at diagnosis before they began a GFD (age 8.6 ± 3.7 years, group Α); 39 children with CD who had followed a GFD for at least 12 months (age 10.4 ± 3.4 years, group B); and 38 healthy children (age 7.7 ± 3.8 years, group C). Each group included the parents of the participants as well.
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One parent of each child completed the Child Behavior Checklist (CBCL) to assess the child’s mental health and the Symptom Checklist 90 (SCL-90-R) to assess the parent’s mental health. The researchers re-evaluated 20 children in group A at least 12 months after they began to follow a GFD (group D).

“At diagnosis, CD patients had higher scores in the CBCL for internalizing problems than healthy controls (55.7 ± 10.3 vs. 47.9 ± 15.4, p = 0.007) and their parents demonstrated increased severity of mental health problems, including anxiety and depression, than the parents of healthy controls (0.72 ± 0.49 vs. 0.54 ± 0.58, p = 0.013),” the researchers concluded.

—Rebecca Mashaw

Reference:

Giannakopoulos G, Margoni D, Chouliaras G, et al. Child and parent mental health problems in pediatric celiac disease: a prospective study. J Pediatr Gastroenterol Nutr. Published online May 11, 2020. doi:10.1097/MPG.0000000000002769