Gluten sensitivity and psychiatric disorders

According to scientists at Karolinska Institutet in Sweden and Johns Hopkins Children’s Center in Baltimore, children born to mothers who have a gluten sensitivity may be at greater risk for developing certain psychiatric disorders later in life.

The researchers explain how their study  “is an illustrative example suggesting that a dietary sensitivity before birth could be a catalyst in the development of schizophrenia or a similar condition 25 years later.”

This may be the first study that shows how a mother’s food sensitivity may potentially lead to the development of the disorder.

The study involved the examination of 764 birth records and neonatal blood samples of Swedes born between 1975 and 1985. About 211 of them eventually developed non-affective psychoses, such as schizophrenia and delusional disorders.

Babies whose mothers had abnormally high levels of antibodies to the wheat protein gluten had almost double the risk of developing schizophrenia later in life, compared to children with normal levels of gluten antibodies.