Water-soluble vitamin insufficiency, deficiency and supplementation in children and adolescents with a psychiatric disorder: a systematic review and meta-analysis
What this study found
Overall, the evidence was heterogeneous but suggested lower vitamin B12 levels in autism spectrum disorder and ADHD versus healthy controls, while folate was higher in ADHD versus controls. In autism spectrum disorder, several supplementation studies reported clinical improvement, particularly with methyl B12 and folinic acid, but findings were inconsistent. Reported benefits included 9 of 30 participants improving on CGI in one methyl B12 crossover trial, significantly better CGI-I with methyl B12 in a randomized trial, and improvements in VABS, verbal communication, and some behavioral…
- Study & population
- Systematic review and meta-analysis of children and adolescents aged 18 years or younger with psychiatric disorders, mainly autism spectrum disorder and ADHD.
- Intervention
- The supplementation regimens varied across included pediatric psychiatric studies and were not uniform.
- Key limitation
- The evidence base was small and highly heterogeneous, with mixed study designs, short treatment durations, and frequent open-label or crossover methods that increase risk of bias.
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Open PDFOriginal abstract
ABSTRACT Nutrition is fundamental for brain development, but relatively little is known about water-soluble vitamin (WSV) levels and the effect of supplementation on psychiatry symptoms in children and adolescents (CAD) with psychiatric disorders. Our team systematically reviewed all studies concerning WSV abnormalities or supplementation in CAD with any psychiatric disorder. We searched for original studies published between 1990 and 15/05/2020 which were not based on retrospective chart review and which included WSV blood level measurements or investigated the effect of WSV supplementation on psychiatric symptoms in psychiatric patients aged 18 or under. Forty-two articles were included, 69% of which (N = 29) examined Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD), with most of these assessing folate or vitamin B12 supplementation (N = 22, 75.9% of ASD studies). Meta-analyses showed significantly lower vitamin B12 levels in ASD and ADHD patients vs. healthy controls (HC), while folate levels were higher in ADHD patients vs. HC. Most of the studies (9/10, 90%) showed a decrease in symptoms as measured by clinical scales after supplementation. There was significant heterogeneity between the studies, however many found different types of vitamin abnormalities in CAD with psychiatric disorders.