Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-jn8rn Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-22T16:19:11.886Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Serum Vitamin B12 Levels in Indian Psychiatric Patients

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  29 January 2018

V. S. Jathar ,
S. P. Patrawalla ,
D. R. Doongaji ,
D. V. Rege  and
R. S. Satoskar
V. S. Jathar
Affiliation:
Radioisotope Laboratory, Dept. of Pharmacology, Seth G.S. Medical College, Bombay-12, India
S. P. Patrawalla
Affiliation:
K.E.M. Hospital, Bombay-12, India
D. R. Doongaji
Affiliation:
Psychiatric Clinic, K.E.M. Hospital, Bombay-12, India
D. V. Rege
Affiliation:
University Department of Chemical Technology, University of Bombay, Bombay-19, India
R. S. Satoskar
Affiliation:
Radioisotope Laboratory, Dept. of Pharmacology, Seth G.S. Medical College, Bombay-12, India
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

It is known that pernicious anaemia is sometimes associated with mental symptoms which improve following vitamin B12 therapy (Eilenberg, 1960; Holmes, 1956; Smith, 1960). Further, it has been pointed out that such mental symptoms can occur years before the development of anaemia and no definite relationship exists between them and the severity of anaemia (Smith, 1960). Cases have been described with a variety of psychiatric symptoms and low serum vitamin B12 levels without any neurological manifestation or abnormality of peripheral blood and bone marrow. Since pernicious anaemia is due to vitamin B12 deficiency it is suspected that B12 deficiency is responsible for the mental symptoms, and serum B12 assays have been advocated routinely in psychiatric patients (Strachan and Henderson, 1965; Hunter and Matthews, 1965).

Type
Research Article
Information
The British Journal of Psychiatry , Volume 117 , Issue 541 , December 1970 , pp. 699 - 704
Copyright
Copyright © The Royal College of Psychiatrists, 1970 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Edwin, E., Holten, K., Norum, K. R., Schrumpf, A., and Skaug, O. E. (1965). ‘Vitamin B12 hypovitaminosis in mental disease.’ Acta medica Scandinavica, 177, 689–99.Google Scholar
Eilenberg, M. D. (1960). ‘Psychiatric illness and clinical re-evaluation’. Journal of Mental Science, 106, 1539–48.Google Scholar
Girdwood, R. H. (1968). ‘Abnormalities of vitamin B12 and folic acid metabolism—their influence on the nervous system.’ Proceedings of the Nutrition Society, 27, 101–7.Google Scholar
Herbert, V. (1966). ‘Serum vitamin B12 and chlorpromazine.’ Lancet, i, 549.Google Scholar
Holmes, J. McD. (1956). ‘Cerebral manifestations of vitamin B12 deficiency.’ British Medical Journal, ii, 1394–8.Google Scholar
Hunter, R., and Matthews, D. M. (1965). ‘Mental symptoms in vitamin B12 deficiency.’ Lancet, ii, 738.Google Scholar
Jathar, V. S., Satoskar, R. S., and Rege, D. V. (1970). ‘Vitamin B12 and vegetarianism.’ Sent for publication.Google Scholar
McAlpine, D. (1929). ‘A review of the nervous and mental aspects of pernicious anaemia.’ Lancet, ii, 643–7.Google Scholar
Mollin, D. L., and Ross, G. I. M. (1953). ‘Serum vitamin B12 concentrations of patients with megaloblastic anaemia after treatment with vitamin B12.’ British Medical Journal, ii, 640.Google Scholar
Mollin, D. L., and Ross, G. I. M. (1955). ‘Serum B12 concentrations in leukaemia and in some haematological conditions.’ British Journal of Haematology, 1, 155.Google Scholar
Ross, G. I. M. (1952). ‘Vitamin B12 assay in body fluids using Euglena gracilis.’ Journal of Clinical Pathology, 5, 250–6.Google Scholar
Shulman, R. (1967). ‘Vitamin B12 deficiency and psychiatric illness.’ British Journal of Psychiatry, 113, 241–51, 252-6.Google Scholar
Strachan, R. W., and Henderson, J. G. (1965). ‘Psychiatric syndromes due to avitaminosis B12 with normal blood and marrow.’ Quartery Journal of Medicine, 34, 303–17.Google Scholar
Smith, A. D. M. (1960). ‘Megaloblastic madness.’ British medical Journal, ii, 1840–5.Google Scholar
West, E. D., and Ellis, F. R. (1966). ‘The electroencephalogram in veganism, vegetarianism, vitamin B12 deficiency, and in controls.’ Journal of Neurology, Neurosurgery and Psychiatry, 29, 391–7.Google Scholar
Submit a response

eLetters

No eLetters have been published for this article.