Immunologic reaction of psychotic patients to fractions of gluten.

Production of a leukocyte migration inhibition factor by peripheral blood lymphocytes in response to challenge with gluten fractions was studied in hospitalized patients with schizophrenia and other psychoses compared with normal individuals and with children and adolescents with celiac disease. The schizophrenic and other psychotic patients could be subdivided into two groups, one that responded in the leukocyte migration inhibition factor test as the celiac patients did and one that responded as the normal control subjects did. The psychotic and schizophrenic patients did not show any evidence of malabsorption. The authors speculate that gluten may be involved in biological processes in the brain in certain psychotic individuals.