Reversal of Psychopathology in Adult Coeliac Disease with the Aid of Pyridoxine (Vitamin B₆)

Abstract

Signs of mental depression are typical in adults presenting with coeliac disease. The response to treatment was evaluated in 12 consecutive patients by means of the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI), with surgical patients serving as controls. The coeliacs reported no change in depressive symptoms after 1 year's gluten withdrawal despite evidence of improvement in the small intestine. When retested after 3 years, however, after 6 months of 80 mg/day of oral pyridoxine (vitamin B₆) therapy, they showed a fall in the score of scale 2 (‘depression’) from 70 to 56 (p < 0.01), which became normalized like other pretreatment abnormalities in the MMPI. Cholecystectomy in the control subjects produced no alterations in the MMPI profile. The results indicate a causal relationship between adult coeliac disease and concomitant depressive symptoms which seems to implicate metabolic effects from pyridoxine deficiency influencing central mechanisms regulating mood.

Key-words:

• Coeliac disease
• depression
• MMPI
• pyridoxine