Food allergy: how much in the mind? A clinical and psychiatric study of suspected food hypersensitivity.
Objective evidence of food hypersensitivity was sought by the use of exclusion diets and provocation tests in 23 patients who attributed a wide variety of symptoms to food allergy. Hypersensitivity to ingested substances was confirmed in 4, each of whom presented with typical atopic symptoms. None of these had psychological symptoms, but a high incidence of psychiatric disorder was found in patients whose belief that they had a food allergy could not be confirmed.
D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D005260:Female; D005512:Food Hypersensitivity / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000523:psychology; D006801:Humans; D007406:Interview, Psychological; D008297:Male; D008402:Mass Media; D001523:Mental Disorders / Q000175:diagnosis; D008875:Middle Aged; D011602:Psychophysiologic Disorders / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000523:psychology; D013001:Somatoform Disorders / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000523:psychology