ADHD associated with significantly less Vitamin B12 – Sept 2018

Homocysteine, Pyridoxine, Folate and Vitamin B12 Levels in Children with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder.

Psychiatr Danub. 2018 Sep;30(3):310-316. doi: 10.24869/psyd.2018.310.
Altun H1, Şahin N, Belge Kurutaş E, Güngör O.
Dept. of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Faculty of Medicine, Kahramanmaras Sutcu Imam U., Kahramanmaras, Turkey, drhaticealtun at gmail.com.

PDF is available free at Sci-Hub   10.24869/psyd.2018.310

BACKGROUND:
In our study, we aimed to evaluate the serum homocysteine levels, pyridoxine, folate and vitamin B12 levels in children with attention deficit hyperactivity disorders (ADHD).

SUBJECTS AND METHODS:
This study included 30 newly diagnosed drug-naive children with ADHD (23 males and 7 female, mean age 9.3±1.8 years) and 30 sex-and age matched healthy controls. The diagnosis of ADHD was made according to DSM-V criteria. Children and adolescents were administered the Schedule for Affective Disorders and Schizophrenia for School Aged Children, Present and Lifetime Version, the Conners' Parent Rating Scale-Revised, Long Form, the Conners' Teacher Rating Scale and the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children Revised (WISC-R) for all participants. Homocysteine, pyridoxine, folate and vitamin B12 levels were measured with enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay.

RESULTS:
Homocysteine, pyridoxine, folate and vitamin B12 levels were significantly lower in children with ADHD compared with their controls (p<0.05). A positive significant correlation was observed between the all WISC-R scores and vitamin B12 level in patients (r=0.408, p=0.025).

CONCLUSIONS:
The results obtained in this study showed that reduced homocysteine, pyridoxine, folate and vitamin B12 levels could be a risk factor in the etiology of ADHD.