Adherence to the Mediterranean diet is linked to reduced psychopathology in female celiac disease patients

Celiac disease (CD) is a chronic enteropathy, affecting approximately 1% of the population worldwide with a higher prevalence in women. Recent studies demonstrate that CD is associated with an increased prevalence of psychopathology. The present study was undertaken to investigate the relationship between adherence to the Mediterranean Diet (MD) and psychopathological symptoms among CD patients, since the MD is a physical and mental health protective dietary regimen, which can easily be rendered gluten-free. A total of 134 CD patients (28 males and 106 females) were included in the study. Psychopathology was evaluated with the Symptom Checklist-90-Revised (SCL-90-R), and MD adherence was calculated using the Mediterranean Dietary Serving Score (MDSS). As regards psychopathological symptoms, female patients presented with statistically significant higher depression and anxiety than males. The majority of patients (64.9%) had low adherence to the MD (MDSS <14) with a mean score of 9.44 +/- 3.26 and 9.14 +/- 3.07 for men and women, respectively, out of a total of 24 points. High MD adherence was observed in 35.7% of the male and 34.9% of the female patients, with a mean score of 16.40 +/- 2.63 and 16.35 +/- 2.12, respectively. Interestingly, MD adherence was inversely associated with the intensity of several psychopathological symptoms in female patients, which represented the majority of the sample. The results of the study underline the need to encourage CD patients to adapt to a Mediterranean-style GFD.