Idealist,

Absolutely, Celiac Disease needs to be considered and tested for. Weight loss and depression are hallmark symptoms.

Here are a couple of excellent overview articles, by the AAFP:

Detecting Celiac Disease in Your Patients by Harold T. Pruessner, MD

Gluten-Sensitive Enteropathy (Celiac Disease): More Common Than You Think by David A. Nelson, JR, MD, MS (AAFP)

GI symptoms may or may not be present. You don't mention if you have diarrhea or not, but less than 50% of those with celiac disease do. Weight loss is a classic symptom. It is not a prerequisite, but it would further increase risk. Depression can be the presenting and only symptom of Celiac Disease. There are some 250 symptoms and multiple other conditions associated with Celiac Disease and/or Gluten Sensitivity. There is lots more in The Gluten File, linked below my name. I hope you will read the Diagnostic Page if you consider testing, as you'd want to be sure all the appropriate tests are run. Sorry, you can't always trust your doctors that they will be .

According to statistics, 90% of those with Celiac Disease remain undiagnosed, and the average length it takes for someone to get a diagnosis exceeds ten years. Awareness has increased a lot in the last five years, so that should be getting better....but many doctors still believe it is a rare disease and do not even consider it. It's actually common. Prevalence is 1 in 100.

Anyway, I hope you will consider this possibility. If you have already been tested for Celiac Disease, please obtain your lab results to see what tests were run. You can definitely be gluten sensitive and symptomatic without testing positive for Celiac Disease antibody markers, which is something that is just starting to be recognized.

Cara

P.S.

These symptoms are a red flag that should prompt testing for Celiac Disease/Gluten Sensitivity testing.

This page gives some pubmed abstracts about celiac disease/ depression.
http://jccglutenfree.googlepages.com...,anxiety,panic