Has folic acid supplementation in food caused less psychosis in children?

TUESDAY, July 3, 2018 (HealthDay News) – Investigators say that they found an unexpected but welcome twist in an effort of several decades to reduce Congenital malformations According to a new study, in addition to protection against serious defects such as spina bifida, enrichment of folic acid intake can also improve fetal brain development and reduce the risk of developing a long-term psychosis.

Psychosis is typically characterized by paranoia, social withdrawal, and hallucinations.

"Folate is an important vitamin B for a host of biochemical processes in the body, from the manufacture and repair of DNA to controlling genes on / off", said corresponding author Dr. Joshua Roffman.

He is an associate professor of psychiatry at Harvard Medical School and co-director of psychiatric neuroimaging at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston

"Because the body can not synthesize it, it must be consumed either from natural sources – as leafy "In the 1980s, low levels of folate in pregnant women were linked to a higher risk of disabling, sometimes fatal, neural tube disorders that affect the spinal cord," said Roffman. including spina bifida. It is then that the spine does not form a complete circle around the spinal cord.

This led to a decision in 1996 to fortify the grain with folic acid and a recommendation for all women of childbearing age. micrograms of folic acid. Together, these movements resulted in a significant decrease in neural tube defects.

"What we and others demonstrate is that prenatal folic acid can also confer protection against serious mental illness in young people, which was not expected." "And there are no guidelines yet for the minimal dose that could help effectively prevent these disorders."

The researchers noted that half of all pregnancies in the United States are unplanned and that neural tube defects occur that she expects.

For the current study, Roffman and his team reviewed 1,400 brain MRIs from children aged 2 to 18 years born before or after the start of folic acid fortification. All had been patients at Massachusetts General or participants in one of the two major health studies.

Children born after enrichment were found in the study to have had a significantly thicker brain tissue than those born earlier.

The fortified group also delayed the thinning of the cerebral cortex in areas related to schizophrenia risk. Over time, such enlightenment is normal, noted the team. But the first signs of thinning have been associated with an increased risk of autism and psychosis.

In turn, psychiatric data from participants in one of the major health studies showed that children exposed to psychosis enrichment.

Roffman described the observations as "the first biological support" for a link between folate and reduced risk of mental health. But the research has found an association, and he said that more work is needed to prove the cause and the effect.

The findings were published in the July 3 online edition JAMA Psychiatry . Tomas Paus is Principal Investigator at the Rotman Research Institute at the University of Toronto. He wrote an editorial accompanying the study, and had reservations about the results.

Paus said that he would expect folate to primarily affect early growth of the brain and that brain size develops early. As such, he was surprised that the study team is focusing on how folic acid could affect the cortical thickness and not the size of the brain's surface .

"There are not many surface changes after birth, there are many changes after birth," he said. "So I'm a bit skeptical about the results, and I'd like to see more data."

Paus said the results should not affect current recommendations for fortification or folic acid supplementation.

"We know that in terms of neural tube risk, the current recommendations are very effective, and I do not see why this document would change anything," he said.

More info

Learn more about US recommendations for folic acid at US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.