Psychiatric illness has been observed to be a main cause of disability in undiagnosed adult coeliac disease. A consecutive series of 16 patients with newly detected adult coeliac disease underwent assessment of personality by means of the MMPI. The coeliacs scored high, 70.3 +/- 12.5, only on MMPI scale 2 ('depression'), which was the only significant difference from matched surgical controls. The score correlated 0.66 with daily fat excretion (p less than 0.05) but was unrelated to abdominal complaints. The general intellectual level, assessed by the SRB test, was similar in coeliacs and controls. Our results suggest that depressive psychopathology is a feature of adult coeliac disease and may be a consequence of malabsorption.