Addison's and other autoimmune diseases
Addison's disease
Addison's disease is an endocrine condition where there can be vague gastrointestinal symptoms due to adrenocortical insufficiency. Lifelong, continuous treatment with steroid replacement therapy is required. There are various causes of Addison's disease, but
autoimmune adrenalitis now accounts for around 70% of all cases, and affects more women than men. Where Addison's disease is autoimmune, around half of those with the condition will develop another autoimmune disorder. There is a similar immunogenetic background to
coeliac disease and
Addison's disease, with both diseases being associated with the DR3-DQ2 allele. However, this alone does not seem to explain the high incidence of one disease in a population with the other which research has shown to be between 7.9-12.2%.
Other autoimmune diseases
Other
autoimmune diseases which have been shown to have an increased incidence in a coeliac population are:
- Sjogren's syndrome - the prevalence of coeliac disease amongst patients with Sjogren's syndrome has been found to be between 4.5% and 15%.
- There has been shown to be a moderately increased prevalence of coeliac disease in patients with sarcoidosis of approximately 4%
Courtesy of Coeliac UK
