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I've just been reading the long and thorough summary on the LIST
DIGEST about the advantages of a gluten-free diet for people with
ADD, ADHD, and ODD.  In the course of the reading, one comes across
mention of autism and schizophrenia - and, of course, irrational
anger and inability to concentrate and stay on task.

At the same time the radio and TV news are devastating this week with
news of two tragedies in two schools.  The lad involved in the
California shooting is described as extremely thin. That made me
wonder if he is an undiagnosed celiac...

English researchers have found that schizophrenics on a gluten-free diet
"can return to normal life. As soon as they go off the diet, they become ill
again and have to be hospitalized."

It seems possible that the boy in California might have benefited
from the removal of gluten from his diet, although I realize he had
other social problems which surely contributed to his  irrational
behavior.

When I first attended a CSA/USA conference (in 1982), I asked the
leadership, before the conference,  about the possibility of a
lecture about the connection between gluten and psychotic behavior.
In our family there was an obvious connection, but no doctor in my
home town knew anything about it.  Each year that I attended a
conference, I wrote ahead of time asking for them to please find a
speaker who knew something about the connection between gluten and
anti-social behavior, irrational anger, schizophrenia...  I never had
a reply, and there was never a speaker who even mentioned the
subject.  When asked, the speakers at the conferences usually looked
blank and confused by the question, as though the possibility had
never occurred to them - and it probably had not.

I have not counted all the responses in the summary, but it was
surely over 20.  It seems to me that those of us who are concerned
about this question, both in our own families and in the world as a
whole, should find a way to have our own meeting - perhaps on line,
or perhaps in some place where we could all gather.  I have not
thought this through, but surely there are others on this LIST who
also feel this need.  And I'm willing to bet that at least a few of
those people have wondered whether or not gluten had any part in the
anti-social behavior of the students with guns in their hands. I
would be happy to hear from you and get your suggestions of ways we,
as a group, might approach this question.  How would we get to the
press, who would know about reaching the public, etc.  Perhaps some
church would offer us facilities in a camp ground where we could
meet, so we would not have the expense of hotel bills.  Perhaps we
need to start with regional meetings to avoid air fare.  Or perhaps
all this can be done on the internet.

Whatever the mechanics, it seems that if we are sending messages
about our experiences  of psychological reactions to gluten to this
LIST, we are operating in a little, closed circle of people who, for
the most part, agree with us.  What we need is a way to get this
message out to the world.  We need to find, for instance, one
boarding school or/and one prison who would be willing to have a
month of completely gluten-free food and gluten-free living, just to
see the reactions - or the improvement in behavior. This would mean
monitoring and pre-testing, testing during the gluten-free period,
and then testing after the groups are put back on a "normal" American
diet.

Perhaps others of you have better ideas of ways to approach this
serious and, in many cases, society-threatening  problem.  Does
anyone know of a doctor who is aware of this connection and working
on the problem?

I have no idea where this train of thought will lead, but I feel it
is too important for us to turn a blind eye on the problem.

Gayle Kennedy