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Vitamin Deficiency and the Psychoses

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  08 February 2018

W. Alex Caldwell  and
S. W. Hardwick
W. Alex Caldwell
Affiliation:
West Park Hospital, Epsom
S. W. Hardwick
Affiliation:
West Park Hospital, Epsom
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Extract

A state of vitamin deficiency arises (i) when inadequate amounts of a vitamin (or vitamins) are ingested, (ii) when absorption from the alimentary canal is defective or interfered with, (iii) when storage mechanisms are at fault, e.g. liver disease, and (iv) when the tissue cells themselves are unable to utilize the vitamin (i, 2). With war rationing the first factor is likely to be commoner than heretofore, especially in alcoholics (3), patients maintaining a strict “peptic ulcer diet” over long periods (4), diabetics (2), mothers sacrificing their rations for the family, food faddists, and in people living alone and doing their own cooking (5). Nowadays many exist on a “borderline” diet, in whom any stress such as pregnancy, infection, surgical procedure, fracture, hyperthyroidism, etc., will precipitate a deficiency state; moreover, in chronic gastro-intestinal disorders the available vitamins may be lost or destroyed (6-14).

Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of Mental Science , Volume 90 , Issue 378 , January 1944 , pp. 95 - 108
Copyright
Copyright © Royal College of Psychiatrists, 1944 

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