The Celiac Disease Patients’ Ability to Experience Pleasure

Abstract

The motivation or ability to experience pleasure has been scarcely studied in celiac disease (CeD). We aimed to investigate the hedonistic feelings/anhedonia and sexual pleasure in CeD patients on a gluten-free diet (GFD) compared to controls. We recruited adult CeD patients at follow-up consecutively visited from April 2017 to April 2018 and controls from the hospital staff and friends of CeD patients. Participants completed the Snaith–Hamilton Pleasure Scale, measuring the levels of anhedonia, and answered three questions about physical contact, sexual activity, and modification of their life on a GFD. We included 178 CeD patients and 173 healthy controls. Seventeen patients (9.5%) and fourteen controls (8.1%) had anhedonia. We did not find any correlation between the presence of anhedonia and the length in years of GFD neither with the dietary compliance and age at the test. 10.7% patients and 8.7% controls reported of not having pleasure in physical contact and 5.06% CeD and 3.5% controls in feeling attraction for another person; 36.56% said a worsening of their life on a GFD. Our results show that CeD patients on a GFD are similar to controls in anhedonia and sexual problems, despite one-third reported a worsening of their life.