The British Journal of Psychiatry (2008) 192: 268-274. doi: 10.1192/bjp.bp.107.039511
© 2008 The Royal College of Psychiatrists
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Predictive value of folate, vitamin B12 and homocysteine levels in late-life depression

Jae-Min Kim, MD, PhD

Department of Psychiatry and Depression Clinical Research Centre, Chonnam National University Medical School, Kwangju, Republic of Korea

Robert Stewart, MD, MRCPsych

Institute of Psychiatry, Section of Epidemiology, King's College London, UK

Sung-Wan Kim, MD, PhD, Su-Jin Yang, MD, PhD, Il-Seon Shin, MD, PhD and Jin-Sang Yoon, MD, PhD

Department of Psychiatry and Depression Clinical Research Centre, Chonnam National University Medical School, Kwangju, Republic of Korea

Correspondence: Professor JS Yoon, Department of Psychiatry and Depression Clinical Research Centre, Chonnam National University Medical School, Kwangju, Republic of Korea. Email: jsyoon{at}chonnam.ac.kr

Declaration of interest

None. Funding detailed in Acknowledgements

Background

The role of folate, vitamin B12 and homocysteine levels in depression is not clear.

Aims

To investigate cross-sectional and prospective associations between folate, B12 and homocysteine levels and late-life depression.

Method

A total of 732 Korean people aged 65 years or over were evaluated at baseline. Of the 631 persons who were not depressed, 521 (83%) were followed over a period of 2–3 years and incident depression was ascertained with the Geriatric Mental State schedule. Serum folate, serum vitamin B12 and plasma homocysteine levels were assayed at both baseline and follow-up.

Results

Lower levels of folate and vitamin B12 and higher homocysteine levels at baseline were associated with a higher risk of incident depression at follow-up. Incident depression was associated with a decline in vitamin B12 and an increase in homocysteine levels over the follow-up period.

Conclusions

Lower folate, lower vitamin B12 and raised homocysteine levels may be risk factors for late-life depression.


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