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. 2017 Mar;139(3):e20162848.
doi: 10.1542/peds.2016-2848. Epub 2017 Feb 20.

Psychological Manifestations of Celiac Disease Autoimmunity in Young Children

Laura B Smith  1 , Kristian F Lynch  2 , Kalle Kurppa  3 , Sibylle Koletzko  4 , Jeffrey Krischer  1 , Edwin Liu  5 , Suzanne Bennett Johnson  6 , Daniel Agardh  7 ; TEDDY study group
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Psychological Manifestations of Celiac Disease Autoimmunity in Young Children

Laura B Smith et al. Pediatrics. 2017 Mar.

Abstract

Background and objectives: Psychological symptoms can be associated with celiac disease; however, this association has not been studied prospectively in a pediatric cohort. We examined mother report of psychological functioning in children persistently positive for tissue transglutaminase autoantibodies (tTGA), defined as celiac disease autoimmunity (CDA), compared with children without CDA in a screening population of genetically at-risk children. We also investigated differences in psychological symptoms based on mothers' awareness of their child's CDA status.

Methods: The Environmental Determinants of Diabetes in the Young study followed 8676 children to identify triggers of type 1 diabetes and celiac disease. Children were tested for tTGA beginning at 2 years of age. The Achenbach Child Behavior Checklist assessed child psychological functioning at 3.5 and 4.5 years of age.

Results: At 3.5 years, 66 mothers unaware their child had CDA reported more child anxiety and depression, aggressive behavior, and sleep problems than 3651 mothers of children without CDA (all Ps ≤ .03). Unaware-CDA mothers also reported more child anxiety and depression, withdrawn behavior, aggressive behavior, and sleep problems than 440 mothers aware of their child's CDA status (all Ps ≤.04). At 4.5 years, there were no differences.

Conclusions: In 3.5-year-old children, CDA is associated with increased reports of child depression and anxiety, aggressive behavior, and sleep problems when mothers are unaware of their child's CDA status. Mothers' knowledge of their child's CDA status is associated with fewer reports of psychological symptoms, suggesting that awareness of the child's tTGA test results affects reporting of symptoms.

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Conflict of interest statement

POTENTIAL CONFLICT OF INTEREST: The authors have indicated they have no potential conflicts of interest to disclose.

Figures

FIGURE 1
FIGURE 1
Difference in CBCL scores between the unaware-CDA group and aware-CDA group. Positive values indicate that the unaware-CDA group had higher CBCL scores. 1Difference in CBCL score was adjusted for country of birth, HLA antigen risk group, sex, FDR with celiac disease, and maternal age at birth.
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