Vitamin B12 Levels May Decrease Prematurely in Schizophrenia
Vitamin B12 levels in the brains of children with autism and adults with schizophrenia were three times lower than in the brains of age-matched controls, according to an analysis of tissue samples from deceased donors. The study, which was published in PLOS One, also found significantly decreased B12 levels in the brains of older adults.
“These are particularly significant findings because the differences we found in brain B12 with aging, autism, and schizophrenia are not seen in the blood, which is where B12 levels are usually measured,” said researcher Richard Deth, PhD, professor of pharmacology at Nova Southeastern University, Fort Lauderdale, Florida. “The large deficits of brain B12 from individuals with autism and schizophrenia could help explain why patients suffering from these disorders experience neurological and neuropsychiatric symptoms.”
Dr. Deth and colleagues measured B12 levels in the frontal cortex tissue of 12 deceased children with autism, 9 deceased adults with schizophrenia, and 43 controls who ranged in age from 19 weeks of fetal development to 80 years old. Their study is the first to report a decrease in B12 levels in the brains across the lifespan and an apparently premature decrease in the brains of children with autism and adults with schizophrenia.
“Vitamin B12 levels in human frontal cortex decrease with age,” they wrote in the study, “especially methylcobalamin, which plays a crucial role in regulating all methylation reactions, including those providing epigenetic regulation of gene expression. Methylcobalamin deficits in autistic and schizophrenic subjects suggest that impaired methylation may be a critical pathological component of these brain disorders, as well as other neurological and neuropsychiatric conditions.”
Noting that the number of brain samples analyzed in the study was limited, researchers said the findings are robust and warrant a larger study investigating B12 levels in the brain—especially in subjects with autism or schizophrenia.
—Jolynn Tumolo
References
- Zhang Y, Hodgson NW, Trivedi MS, et al. Decreased brain levels of vitamin B12 in aging, autism, and schizophrenia. PLOS One. 2016 Jan. 22;11(1):e0146797.
- Researchers find brain levels of vitamin B12 decrease with age and are prematurely low in people with autism and schizophrenia [press release]. Nova Southeastern University: Fort Lauderdale, FL; Jan. 22, 2016.
Psych Topics:
Schizophrenia & Psychotic Disorders
Child & Adolescent Psychiatry