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Folic acid may benefit bipolar disorder patients
By Mark Cowen, Medwire News
03 April 2009
Acta Psychiatr Scand 2009; Advance online publication
Bipolar disorder patients in an acute phase of mania may benefit from treatment with folic acid as an adjuvant to sodium valproate, research suggests.
?Adequate levels of folate are crucial for proper brain and body functioning,? write Ashkan Behzadi (Iran University of Medical Science, Tehran) and colleagues in the journal Acta Psychiatrica Scandinavica.
They explain: ?Studies have reported that patients with mood disorders such as major depression and both phases of bipolar disorder have low plasma, serum or red blood cell folate concentrations, and a recent trial on mood disorders showed beneficial results from supplementing antidepressant medication with folic acid.?
However, the researchers add: ?To date there has been no study to determine the effect of folic acid in the mania phase of bipolar disorder.?
To investigate, the team recruited 88 clinically manic patients, aged an average of 35 years, with type I bipolar disorder.
The participants were divided into two groups to receive either sodium valproate plus folic acid or sodium valproate alone for 3 weeks.
The severity of mania was assessed using the Young Mania Rating Scale (YMRS), with higher scores indicating more severe mania symptoms, at the beginning of the study, and again at the end of the first, second and third weeks.
At the start of the study, mean YMRS measurements were similar in both groups, at 34.0 in the folic acid group and 34.7 in the control group.
However, mean scores fell to 26.7, 18.1, and 7.1 after the first, second, and third week of treatment in the folic acid group, compared with 27.3, 20.7, and 10.1, respectively, in the control group.
There was a statistically significant difference in YMRS scores between the two groups after 3 weeks of treatment, says the team.
Behzadi et al conclude: ?Based on our findings, folic acid seems to be an effective adjuvant supplement to sodium valproate in the treatment of the acute phase of mania in patients with bipolar disorder.?
However, they add that further research is needed to confirm their findings and to see whether the benefits are applicable both to patients with normal folate levels and to those with folate deficiency.
Journal abstract
By Mark Cowen, Medwire News
03 April 2009
Acta Psychiatr Scand 2009; Advance online publication
Bipolar disorder patients in an acute phase of mania may benefit from treatment with folic acid as an adjuvant to sodium valproate, research suggests.
?Adequate levels of folate are crucial for proper brain and body functioning,? write Ashkan Behzadi (Iran University of Medical Science, Tehran) and colleagues in the journal Acta Psychiatrica Scandinavica.
They explain: ?Studies have reported that patients with mood disorders such as major depression and both phases of bipolar disorder have low plasma, serum or red blood cell folate concentrations, and a recent trial on mood disorders showed beneficial results from supplementing antidepressant medication with folic acid.?
However, the researchers add: ?To date there has been no study to determine the effect of folic acid in the mania phase of bipolar disorder.?
To investigate, the team recruited 88 clinically manic patients, aged an average of 35 years, with type I bipolar disorder.
The participants were divided into two groups to receive either sodium valproate plus folic acid or sodium valproate alone for 3 weeks.
The severity of mania was assessed using the Young Mania Rating Scale (YMRS), with higher scores indicating more severe mania symptoms, at the beginning of the study, and again at the end of the first, second and third weeks.
At the start of the study, mean YMRS measurements were similar in both groups, at 34.0 in the folic acid group and 34.7 in the control group.
However, mean scores fell to 26.7, 18.1, and 7.1 after the first, second, and third week of treatment in the folic acid group, compared with 27.3, 20.7, and 10.1, respectively, in the control group.
There was a statistically significant difference in YMRS scores between the two groups after 3 weeks of treatment, says the team.
Behzadi et al conclude: ?Based on our findings, folic acid seems to be an effective adjuvant supplement to sodium valproate in the treatment of the acute phase of mania in patients with bipolar disorder.?
However, they add that further research is needed to confirm their findings and to see whether the benefits are applicable both to patients with normal folate levels and to those with folate deficiency.
Journal abstract
