<<Disclaimer: Verify this information before applying it to your situation.>> 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