Hanaa Wafaa

King Abdulaziz University, Saudi Arabia

DOES MEGALOBLASTIC ANEMIA LEAD TO PSYCHOSIS? A SINGLE-CENTER STUDY FROM SAUDI ARABIA

Biography

The incidence of megaloblastic anemia (MA) has increased for the last two decades, particularly in underdeveloped countries. In addition, several previous studies reported an association between MA caused by vitamin B12 (VitB12) deficiency and psychosis. Thus, this study aims to determine the association between MA and psychosis among psychotic patients in the Mental Health Hospital at Taif, Saudi Arabia. A total of Fifty psychotic male patients, aged 48.58±1.72, were recruited from the Mental Health Hospital at Taif, Saudi Arabia, in addition to fifty-four sex-matched healthy controls. Blood samples were withdrawn from both groups, and the following tests were run CBC, LFT, VitB12, Folate, and CRP levels. All data were statistically analysed using the IBM SPSS Statistics for Windows. The CBC results showed that RBCs count, hemoglobin, hematocrit, platelets count, MPV, and absolute lymphocyte count were significantly lower in psychotic patients versus healthy control (P= 0.007, P= 0.002, P= 0.001, P= 0.004, P= 0.0001, and P= 0.005, respectively). In contrast, the Eosinophil absolute count and Basophil percentage were significantly higher in psychotic patients (P= 0.009, P = 0.0001, respectively). C-reactive protein was significantly higher in psychotic patients (P= 0.003). Albumin was significantly lower in psychotic patients (P= 0.0001). Vitamin B12 levels were slightly lower in psychotic patients than in the healthy group, although it is not statistically significant. There were significant negative correlations between serum levels of VitB12 and Negative symptoms (r= -0.381, P =0.006) and Hallucination (r= -0.297, P=0.036). These findings indicate no link between MA induced by VitB12 insufficiency and psychosis among psychotic patients in Taif's Mental Health Hospital. However, low serum VitB12 can predict the severity of some psychosis signs, including hallucinations and negative symptoms. Therefore, monitoring VitB12 levels in psychotic patients is recommended to improve their symptoms.