Associations of Vitamin B₁₂ and Folic Acid Concentrations in Psychiatric Disorders

The serum vitamin B₁₂(B₁₂) and folic acid estimations were performed on 206 psychiatric inpatients, consecutive admissions to a Ewha Womans University Hospital, Neuropsychiatric Department.

The mean serum B₁₂ value in the subjects(1004.24±479.76pg/ml) was somewhat higher than the normal serum B₁₂ value and none of the subjects has serum B₁₂ deficiency.

The mean serum B₁₂ value was the lowest in 21~30 age group and the highest in 31~40 age group(p<0.05).

The mean serum folic acid value(8.09±4.15ng/ml) was in the range of normal value. But the patients with low serum folic acid value(O~2.5ng/ml) were 6 cases(2.9%), consisting of 3 schizophrenia, 1 mood disorder and 1 epilepsy and the ratio of patients with low anti equivocal serum folic acid value(<5.Ong/ml) was 23.8%. The mean serum folic acid value was the lowest in 11~20 age group and the highest in 51~60 age group(p<0.05).

Patients with epilepsy, organic mental disorder and schizophrenia(in order) had significantly lower mean serum B₁₂ & folic acid values and alcoholism had significantly higher mean serum B₁₂ & folic acid values(p<0.05).

It was concluded that serum B₁₂ deficiency was not related to the psychiatric disorders and the serum folic acid deficiency, but folic acid deficiency appeared to be in certain psychiatric disorders and related to the chronicity of mental illness.