Folate and Vitamin B12 Reduce Disabling Schizophrenia Symptoms in Some Patients

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2013/03/130306162237.htm

Mar 6th 2013

Adding the dietary supplements folate and vitamin B12 to treatment with antipsychotic medication improved a core symptom component of schizophrenia in a study of more than 100 patients. The study focused on negative symptoms of schizophrenia -- which include apathy, social withdrawal, and a lack of emotional expressiveness. While the level of improvement across all participants was modest, results were more significant in individuals carrying specific variants in genes involved with folate metabolism. The report from a team based at Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) will appear in the journal JAMA Psychiatry (formerly Archives of General Psychiatry) and has been issued online.

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Adequate folate intake during pregnancy can reduce the risk of birth defects -- in particular neural tube defects -- and studies have suggested that folate deficiency during pregnancy significantly increases the risk of schizophrenia among offspring. Earlier research by members of the MGH-based team associated low blood folate levels with more severe negative symptoms among patients with schizophrenia.

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"For participants who did show a benefit, it took the full 16 weeks of treatment for that benefit to appear," Roffman explains. "While we don't know why this is the case, changes in gene expression -- which take time -- are a likely explanation. Folate plays a critical role in DNA methylation, which regulates gene expression, so it's plausible that its effects on negative symptoms act through gene expression changes. Participants with the low-functioning FOLH1 variant might eventually show a benefit of folate supplementation if treated for a longer period of time, but that needs to be investigated in future studies."

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