2010, Cilt 8, Sayı 2, Sayfa(lar) 057-062 |
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Serum B12 and Folate Levels in Psychiatric Patients Treated with Lithium |
Serap Cuhadar, Ayşenur Atay, Mehmet Köseoğlu |
Atatürk Eğitim ve Araştırma Hastanesi, II. Biyokimya Laboratuvarı, İzmir |
Keywords: Lithium, vitamin B12, cobalamin, folate, folic acid, vitamins |
Objective: It is unclear whether there is a relationship between lithium administration and folate and vitamin B 12 metab olism.
Materials and Methods: We compared retrospectively serum B12, and serum folate concentrations in
patients receiving and not receiving lithium at our hospital's Psychiatric Unit between January and
December 2008. Serum folate and B12 concentrations were estimated in 64 affective disorder
patients taking lithium prophylactically, 42 of whom had bipolar disorder, and in 64 psychiatric
patients not receiving lithium, 46 of whom had unipolar depression.
Results: There were no significant differences in serum B12 or folate between lithium-treated and
untreated psychiatric patients. There were 5 (8%) patients with serum folate concentrations below
3 ng/mL and 18 (28%) with serum B12 concentrations below 193 pg/mL in lithium-treated patients.
14 patients (21%) had low levels of B12 in non-lithium treated patients.
Conclusion: Contrary to other findings, there were no statistically differences between the folate and
B12 concentrations of each group.
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