<<Disclaimer: Verify this information before applying it to your situation.>> The following is a letter from Dr. Reichelt that was written in response to some questions posted in a newsgroup. > - can gluten intolerance cause a forboding feeling that there is a >'conspiracy' working against you or causes you support, obsessiveness, or >lack of insight? Can it cause feelings of persecution, the sense that >things somehow pertain to you or your close friends and relatives? Can it >make someone display symptons of paranoid-type schizophrenia? From: [log in to unmask] (Kalle Reichelt) Subject: Gluten, casein and behaviour Hi. It is of course very difficult to make follow the effect of gliadin, gluten and casein derived peptides and their specific effects on the brain. However, the fact that opioids from exogenous proteins can be isolated from patients (1,Reichelt et al submitted), and that other peptides found in urine and dialysis fluid from patients (2,3) also causes behavioural changes in animal models, makes it possible that paranoid ideation and persecutory feeling could well be human correlates of the behaviour changes noted in animals (2,3). We cannot do such experiments on humans although they have been carried out before the advent of ethical committees. Thus prof R Heath in New Orleans injected a serum prep on volunteering prisoners called tarexein. They definitely demonstrated schizoid behaviour. (I have seen the videos myself). We have effect on schizophrenics on diet (blind) (4) which agrees with some publications (5,6) but not with others. I think the negative experiments were run for too short an interval. A dietary casein and gluten free diet would need 1/2 to one year to be certain. In autistic children we do also find a clearcut effect of diet run over 4 years (1). However, if it is correct that you drink tons of coffee, this could in itself be the cause. This is because caffeine act as a CNS stimulatory agent causing higher arousal which again makes you more introverted. If the doses are very large borderline conditions may develop and the world by seeming strange causes paranoid ideation to explain the changed perception of the world. See Prof Eysencks many paperbacks on psychology. Amphetamine has the same effect (bad trips) in introverted persons. In Hyperkinetic children where the attention related CNS centres show lower activation, they go from extreme extroversion and become normalized. Treating epileptic children with the drugs available often causes a iatrogenic hyperactivity (ADD) syndrome because of increased CNS inhibition. This is a clinical problem which is difficult but unavoidable. Ref: 1:Reichelt Kl et al (1991) Brain Dysfunct . 4:308-319. 2: Hole K et al (1979) Neuroscience 4:1883-1893. 3:Drysdale A et al (1982)Neuroscience 7:1567-1574 4:Reichelt KL et al (1990) J Ortomol Med5:223-239 5:Singh MM and Kay (1976) Science 191:401-402. 6:Vlissides DN et al (1986) Brit J psychiat 148:447-452(some cases, not all) Right now I do not have time for more references, but we can get back to that later. All the best Cheers TINY K. Reichelt Pediatric Research Institute N-0027 Oslo, Norway Tel: +47 22 86 90 45 Fax: +47 22 86 91 17 E-mail: [log in to unmask]