Yaprak Çilem Yalçın Arslan, Nefize Yalñn, Ayül Özerdem, Zeliha Tunca Dokuz Eylül University Faculty of Medicine Department of Mental Health and Diseases

Introduction:Folate and vitamin B12 deficiencies play a role in the pathogenesis of many neuropsychiatric diseases such as mood disorders and cognitive disorders. In depression, plasma folate levels are found to be low and homocysteine ​​levels are found to be high. In some clinical studies, folate and vitamin B12 supplementation has been shown to increase the response to antidepressants. The aim of this study was to compare the vitamin B12 and folate levels measured during attacks in patients diagnosed with bipolar and unipolar depressive disorder with each other and with the control group.

Method:The study is a retrospective study. The patient group consisted of 331 patients aged between 19-82 who were hospitalized in the Dokuz Eylül University, Faculty of Medicine, Psychiatry Department with the diagnosis of bipolar and unipolar depressive disorder in the last five years, and the control group consisted of 1440 patients aged between 18-64 who were admitted to the Dermatology Polyclinic between July 2007 and July 2008. Vitamin B12 and folate values ​​of the patient and control groups were obtained from the database of the hospital's central laboratory.

Findings:14.7% (n=260) of the study group had unipolar and 4% had unipolar depressive disorder. bipolar depression (n=71), 81.3% constituted the control group (n=1440). Since vitamin B12 and folate values ​​were not normally distributed, logarithmic transformation values ​​were compared. The means were not found to be different among the three groups (ANOVA, p=0.091). The means of VITAMIN B12 in patients with single-ended (405.98±288.08) and bipolar depression (439.95±240.30) diagnoses were higher than the control group (343.97±195.73) (ANOVA, p=0.0001, post-hoc Bonferroni, p=0.003 and p=0.002). Mean folate levels in patients with unipolar (7.52±4.13) and bipolar depression (7.17±4.34) were lower than the control group (8.67±4.28) (ANOVA, p=0.0001, post-hoc Bonferroni, p=0.0001and p=0.003). Mean vitamin B12 and folate levels were not different in unipolar and bipolar depression. Vitamin B12 and folate levels were positively correlated with age. In women, only the mean folic acid levels in unipolar depression (7.59±3.89) were lower than controls (Bonferroni, p=0.0001), and in bipolar depression (7.67±4.58) they were not different (Bonferroni, p=0.085).

Conclusion:The decrease in serum folate levels in both bipolar and unipolar depression compared to the control group is consistent with the literature. It is especially important to detect folate deficiency in unipolar female depressed patients. Contrary to expectations, the higher levels of vitamin B12 in patients with depression may be related to the rapid detection and replacement of vitamin B12 in our clinic.

Keywords:depression, bipolar, folate, vitamin B12