Psychological characteristics of people with perceived food intolerance ina community sample

In most adults who believe themselves to be food intolerant there is no obj ective supporting evidence. It has therefore been proposed that the misperc eption of intolerance to food is linked to psychiatric illness or personali ty disorder. This hypothesis was tested in a community-derived sample of in dividuals who attributed an adverse symptom to a type of food. A random mai ling recruited 955 participants aged greater than or equal to 18 years, of whom 232 perceived themselves to be food intolerant (PFI). All recruits wer e sent two questionnaires, the General Health Questionnaire-28 (GHQ-28) and the shortened version of the Eysenck Personality Questionnaire (EPQ-R). A total of 535 GHQ-28 and 518 EPQ-R forms were returned that were correctly c ompleted, an overall response rate of 55%. For the subscales of the EPQ-R, neuroticism was greater in those with a PFI than those without. Women with a PFI were more extroverted than control women. For the GHQ-28 subscales, w omen with a PFI had significantly higher scores than control women on somat ic symptoms, anxiety, insomnia, and severe depression. There was a greater percentage of psychiatric caseness among women with a PFI than among men wi th a PFI or control women. Nevertheless, this percentage was no greater tha n that reported among a reference sample derived from NHS and university st aff. It is concluded that perceived food intolerance is associated with psy chological distress in women with a PFI, and neurotic symptoms in both men and women with a PFI, but there is no greater prevalence of psychiatric dis order among women or men with a PFI than there is in some professional grou ps. (C) 1999 Elsevier Science Inc.