Higher vitamin B12 levels in neurodevelopmental disorders than in healthy controls and schizophrenia A comparison among participants between 2 and 53 years

• Main Authors: Hope, Sigrun, Nærland, Terje, Høyland, Anne Lise, Torske, Tonje, Malt, Eva, Abrahamsen, Tore G, Nerhus, Mari, Wedervang-Resell, Kirsten, Lonning, Vera Louise Hiorth, Johannessen, Jarle, Steen, Nils Eiel, Agartz, Ingrid, Stenberg, Nina, Hundhausen, Thomas Eckhard, Mørkrid, Lars, Andreassen, Ole Andreas
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• ISSN: 8114-8124

Recent studies suggest that both high and low levels of vitamin B12 (vitB12) may have negative health impacts. We measured VitB12 in patients with the Neurodevelopmental disorders (ND) (n = 222), comprised of Autism Spectrum Disorders, specific Developmental disorders, and Intellectual Disability (aged 2-53 years), schizophrenia (n = 401), and healthy controls (HC) (n = 483). Age-and gender-adjusted vitB12 z-scores were calculated by comparisons with a reference population (n = 76 148). We found higher vitB12 in ND (median 420 pmol/L, mean z-score: 0.30) than in HC (316 pmol/L, z-score: 0.06, P < .01) and schizophrenia (306 pmol/L, z-score: −0.02, P < .001), which was significant after adjusting for age, gender, vitB12 supplement, folate, hemoglobin, leukocytes, liver, and kidney function (P < .02). In ND, 20% (n = 44) had vitB12 above 650 pmol/L, and 1% (n = 3) had below 150 pmol/L (common reference limits). In 6.3% (n = 14) of ND, vitB12 was above 2SD of mean in the age-and gender-adjusted reference population, which was more frequent than in HC (n = 8, 1.6%), OR: 4.0, P = .001. Low vitB12 was equally frequent as in HC, and vitB12 z-scores were equal across the age groups. To conclude, vitB12 was higher in ND than in HC and schizophrenia, suggesting a specific feature of ND, which warrants further studies to investigate the underlying mechanisms.