Association between vitamin b12 levels and melancholic depressive symptoms: a Finnish population-based study

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Abstract

Background

An association between vitamin B ₁₂ levels and depressive symptoms (DS) has been reported in several epidemiological studies. The purpose of this study was to evaluate vitamin B ₁₂ levels in population-based samples with melancholic or non-melancholic DS as the relationship between vitamin B ₁₂ levels and different subtypes of DS has not been evaluated in previous studies.

Methods

Subjects without previously known type 2 diabetes, aged 45–74 years were randomly selected from the National Population Register as a part of the Finnish diabetes prevention programme (FIN-D2D). The study population (N = 2806, participation rate 62%) consisted of 1328 men and 1478 women. The health examinations were carried out between October and December 2007 according to the WHO MONICA protocol. The assessment of DS was based on the Beck Depression Inventory (BDI, cut-off ≥10 points). A DSM-IV- criteria based summary score of melancholic items in the BDI was used in dividing the participants with DS (N = 429) into melancholic (N = 138) and non-melancholic DS (N = 291) subgroups. In the statistical analysis we used chi-squared test, t-test, permutation test, analysis of covariance, multivariate logistic regression analysis and multinomial regression model.

Results

The mean vitamin B ₁₂ level was 331±176 pmol/L in those without DS while the subjects with non-melancholic DS had a mean vitamin B ₁₂ level of 324 ± 135 pmol/L, and those with melancholic DS had the lowest mean vitamin B ₁₂ level of 292±112 pmol/L (p < 0.001 after adjusted for age, sex, use of antidepressive medication and chronic diseases sum index). The adjusted difference of vitamin B ₁₂ levels between the non-melancholic and the melancholic group was 33 pmol/L (95%CI 8 to 57, p = 0.008). Melancholic DS and vitamin B ₁₂ levels showed an independent linearly inverse association. The relative risk ratio (RRR) for melancholic DS was 2.75 (95%CI 1.66 to 4.56) in the lowest vitamin B ₁₂ level tertile versus the highest (p for linearity <0.001) when those without DS formed the reference group. The RRR in the non-melancholic subgroup was nonsignificant.

Conclusions

The vitamin B ₁₂ level was associated with melancholic DS but not with non-melancholic DS.

Related collections

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Author and article information

Journal

Journal ID (nlm-ta): BMC Psychiatry

Journal ID (iso-abbrev): BMC Psychiatry

Title: BMC Psychiatry

Publisher: BioMed Central

ISSN (Electronic): 1471-244X

Publication date Collection: 2013

Publication date (Electronic): 24 May 2013

Volume: 13

Page: 145

Affiliations

[1 ]Department of Psychiatry, South-Savo Hospital District, Mikkeli, Finland

[2 ]Department of Psychiatry, Institute of Clinical Medicine, University of Eastern Finland, P.O. Box 1627, Kuopio, 70211, Finland

[3 ]Department of Psychiatry, Kuopio University Hospital, P.O. Box 1777, Kuopio, 70211, Finland

[4 ]Unit of Family Practice, Central Finland Central Hospital, Jyväskylä, 40620, Finland

[5 ]Unit of Primary Health Care, Kuopio University Hospital, P.O. Box 1777, Kuopio, 70211, Finland

[6 ]Department of General Practice and Primary Health Care, University of Helsinki, P.O. Box 33, Helsinki, 00014, Finland

[7 ]Unit of General Practice, Helsinki University General Hospital, P.O. Box 590, Helsinki, 00029, Finland

[8 ]National Institute for Health and Welfare, P.O. Box 30, Helsinki, 00271, Finland

[9 ]Folkhälsan Research Center, P.O. Box 63, Helsinki, 00014, Finland

[10 ]Vasa Central Hospital, Vasa, 65130, Finland

[11 ]Medical School, University of Tampere, Tampere, 33014, Finland

[12 ]Department of Psychiatry, Seinäjoki Hospital District, Seinäjoki, 60220, Finland

[13 ]Department of Chronic Disease Prevention, National Institute for Health and Welfare, P.O. Box 30, Helsinki, 00271, Finland

[14 ]Institute of Clinical Medicine, General Practice, University of Turku, Turku, 20014, Finland

[15 ]Unit of Primary Health Care, Turku University Hospital, Turku, 20520, Finland

[16 ]Tampere University Hospital, P.O. Box 2000, Tampere, 33521, Finland

[17 ]Private practices, Diacor, Helsinki, 00380, Finland

[18 ]Medical School, University of Tampere, Tampere, 33014, Finland

[19 ]Tampere Mental Health Center, P.O. Box 487, Tampere, 33101, Finland

[20 ]Department of Psychiatry, South-Savo Hospital District, Moisiontie 10, Mikkeli, FIN, 50520, Finland

Article

Publisher ID: 1471-244X-13-145

DOI: 10.1186/1471-244X-13-145

PMC ID: 3674945

PubMed ID: 23705786

SO-VID: 9698a5c9-5eca-46d6-93c1-3985e9507855

License:

This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License ( http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.