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Journal of Attention Disorders, Vol. 10, No. 2, 200-204 (2006)
DOI: 10.1177/1087054706292109

A Preliminary Investigation of ADHD Symptoms in Persons With Celiac Disease

Helmut Niederhofer

Regional Hospital of Bolzano, Italy, helmutniederhofer{at}yahoo.de

Klaus Pittschieler

Regional Hospital of Bolzano, Italy

Objective: Several studies report a possible association of celiac disease (CD) with psychiatric and psychological disturbances, such as ADHD.

Method: The authors assess 132 participants from 3 to 57 years of age (M = 19.3 years) affected by CD for the possibility of an associated ADHD-like symptomatology, using the Conner Scale Hypescheme, a behavioral scale similar to the Conners Rating Scales, before their gluten-free diet was started and 6 months later.

Results: The overall score improves significantly as well as most of the ADHD-like symptomatology specific features (Bonferroni-corrected, paired-sample t tests).

Conclusion: The data indicate that ADHD-like symptomatology is markedly overrepresented among untreated CD patients and that a gluten-free diet may improve symptoms significantly within a short period of time. The results of this study also suggest that CD should be included in the list of diseases associated with ADHD-like symptomatology.

Key Words: ADHD • celiac disease

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This Article
Right arrow Abstract Freely available
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Right arrow Articles by Niederhofer, H.
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What's this?