Schizophrenia and coeliac disease--the nature of the relationship.

To test the hypothesis of an association between schizophrenia and coeliac disease, the sera of 380 chronic schizophrenic in-patients in two mental hospitals in the West of Ireland have been screened for the presence of reticulin antibodies. Antibodies were found in 26 patients. Twenty-one of these patients were further studied by proximal duodenal mucosal biopsy. None of the biopsies showed the morphological and histological features found in untreated coeliac disease. The incidence of reticulin antibodies in schizophrenic patients and controls is similar. The findings of this study lead to the rejection of the hypothesis of a positive genetic relationship between schizophrenia and coeliac disease.