From: drarwingnuttephd@gmail.com   
      
   B vitamins might help some with schizophrenia    
   By Andrew M. Seaman    
   NEW YORK | Fri Mar 8, 2013 4:57pm EST    
   SHARE THIS ARTICLE    
   Email    
   Facebook    
   Twitter    
   By Andrew M. Seaman    
      
   New York (Reuters Health) - Possessing one or another version of a gene key to   
   metabolizing the B vitamin folate may make a big difference in who responds to   
   vitamin supplements intended to treat negative symptoms of schizophrenia,   
   according to a new    
   study.    
      
   Researchers tracked 140 people with schizophrenia for 16 weeks and found that   
   those with the so-called high-functioning FOLH1 gene variant had a greater   
   response to folic acid and B12 supplements, compared to those with the   
   low-functioning FOLH1 variant.    
      
   "That's a gene that actually controls the digestion of folate (or folic acid)   
   into the bloodstream," said Dr. Joshua Roffman, the study's lead author from   
   Massachusetts General Hospital in Charlestown.    
      
   Folate, one of the B vitamins, is used in the manufacturing of n   
   urotransmitters, which send signals throughout the brain and body, and it's   
   found in leafy vegetables, citrus fruits, beans and fortified grain products.    
      
   Since the 1960s, Roffman told Reuters Health, folate deficiencies have been   
   tied to the development of schizophrenia, and researchers have observed spikes   
   in cases of the mental disorder after famines in China and the Netherlands,   
   for example.    
      
   But this new study, he said, is the first to look at the effects of folate   
   supplements in a large population of people with the condition - at several   
   medical centers in Massachusetts, New York and Michigan.    
      
   The researchers, who published their findings in JAMA Psychiatry, were   
   targeting so-called negative symptoms in schizophrenia patients, which include   
   apathy, withdrawal and an inability to display emotion.    
      
   Those are less severe than the more well-know symptoms of schizophrenia -   
   including hallucinations, delusions and paranoia - but still lead to   
   significant impairment, because they are unaffected by traditional   
   antipsychotic drugs, experts said.    
      
   "There's nothing that's widely accepted that's demonstrated to help. So there   
   is a big need for this kind of work," said Dr. Scott Stroup, a professor of   
   psychiatry at New York's Columbia University who was not involved with the   
   research.    
      
   For the new study, the researchers recruited 140 schizophrenia patients and   
   randomly assigned them into two groups. One group received 2 milligrams of   
   folic acid and 400 micrograms of vitamin B12, which increases folic acid's   
   effect, per day for 16 weeks.   
    The other group took placebo pills for comparison, but all patients also   
   continued their normal medications.    
      
   At the beginning, each group scored in the mid-30s on a scale that measures   
   the severity of their negative symptoms from 0 to 100 - with higher scores   
   being more severe. Roffman said the participants all had moderate to severe   
   symptoms.    
      
   Overall, those taking the supplements improved on the scale after the 16   
   weeks, but it wasn't until the researchers looked at each person's FOLH1 gene   
   type that they identified who benefited the most.    
      
   Specifically, those with the high-functioning version of the FOLH1gene seemed   
   to be able to process the supplements best, and saw their negative symptom   
   score drop by about 5 points, compared to no significant change in the placebo   
   group members with    
   high-functioning FOLH1 genes.    
      
   "The level of symptom change we saw in this study would be detectable... but   
   it's definitely a modest change," Roffman said.    
      
   He added that participants with high-functioning FOLH1 also had higher folate   
   levels in their blood at the start of the study, compared to the participants   
   with low-functioning FOLH1.    
      
   Folate levels in people with the low-functioning variant who took the   
   supplements eventually caught up to those with the high-functioning variant,   
   according to Roffman. And those participants might have improved on the   
   symptom scale if the study had gone    
   longer than 16 weeks.    
      
   Stroup told Reuters Health he doesn't think enough is known to use folic acid   
   and B12 supplements to treat people with schizophrenia, but it's good that   
   researchers are looking into it.    
      
   "I think the impact on negative symptoms was pretty small, but the paper   
   itself is important," he said.    
      
   SOURCE: http://bit.ly/VP5E87 JAMA Psychiatry, online March 6, 2013.    
      
   http://mobile.reuters.com/article/idUSBRE92719120130308?irpc=932   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)