Psychological characteristics of adult patients with celiac disease

Aim. To study clinical, psychosomatic disorders and quality of life in adult patients with different clinical variants of celiac disease (CD). Material and methods. Questionnaire survey, psychological examination and estimation of quality of life were conducted in 90 patients with celiac disease aged 16-62 years. Depending on clinical symptoms the patients were divided into 3 groups: patients with prevalent diarrhea (n = 30, 33.3%, group 1), patients with prevalent constipation (n = 24, 26.7%, group 2), patients with atypical form (n = 36, 40.0%, group 3). Results. Clinical heterogenicity of the disease was revealed., gastrointestinal, endocrine, skeletal-muscular, respiratory and skin lesions were found. Conclusion. CD patients demonstrate social-psychological maladaptation in the form of situational and personality anxiety, moderate depression depending on a clinical variant of the disease. Quality of life in CD patients is significantly inferior of population norm. Psychic component of health suffers more (viability, social functioning) than physical one (physical performance, scales of pain and general health).