Abstract

SANTOS, Ellen da Costa; BRITO, Adriana  and  PEREIRA, Isabela Rosier Olímpio. Vitamin B12 deficiency: a factor that induces depression?. Cad. Pós-Grad. Distúrb. Desenvolv. [online]. 2016, vol.16, n.2, pp. 33-46. ISSN 1519-0307.  http://dx.doi.org/10.5935/1809-4139.20160005.

Vitamin B12 is essential to the formations of RBC, maintenance of the nervous system and its normal growth. The deficiency of vitamin B12 creates a case of hyperhomocysteinemia and decline of S-adenosylmethionine, which is a risk factor for depression without adequate treatment. This project had as an objective to verify the relation between depression and the deficiency of vitamin B12, through literary revision. The research is founded in 25 articles and studies obtained through data banks SciELO, PubMed and Google Acadêmico, published in the permitted period between 1979 and 2015. Of the 25 results obtained, 15 associated the deficiency of B12 with depression and 10 didn't find this relation. Some studies found that low levels of vitamin B12 are present in a greater part of depressed individuals, that the consumption of vitamin B12 leads to a better treatment than anti-depressives, individuals without depressive symptoms when treated with vitamin B12 have a smaller risk of depression, others, didn't correlate the lack of vitamin B12 as a cause of depression, but, depression leading to a lack of hunger, and because of this, lower levels of vitamin. The difference between results shows a necessity of more research in this area.

Keywords : depression; deficiency of vitamin B12; homocysteine; S-adenosylmethionine.

        · abstract in Portuguese | Spanish     · text in Portuguese     · Portuguese ( pdf )