Title:Association of Folate Level in Blood with the Risk of Schizophrenia
VOLUME: 20 ISSUE: 2
Author(s):Yujie Ding, Mingliang Ju, Lin He and Wenzhong Chen*
Affiliation:Shanghai Key Laboratory of Psychotic Disorders, Shanghai Mental Health Center, Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine, Shanghai 200030, Shanghai Key Laboratory of Psychotic Disorders, Shanghai Mental Health Center, Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine, Shanghai 200030, Shanghai Key Laboratory of Psychotic Disorders, Shanghai Mental Health Center, Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine, Shanghai 200030, Shanghai Mental Health Center, 3210 Humin Road, Shanghai 201108
Keywords:Folate, schizophrenia, meta-analysis, case-control study, folic acid, neurodevelopmental disorders.
Abstract:Aim and Objective: The aim of this study was to evaluate the association between folate
level and the risk of schizophrenia and to identify possible biomarker for schizophrenia.
Materials and Methods: Data about folate were extracted from 16 high quality studies. The
association of folate level in blood and schizophrenia was evaluated using standardized mean
difference (SMD) and 95% confidence interval (CI).
Results: Totally 1183 (52.1%) cases and 1089 (47.9%) controls were included in the current metaanalysis.
Folate level in schizophrenia patients was significantly lower than that in healthy controls
(SMD= −0.65; 95% CI: [−0.86, −0.45]; P <0.00001). Subgroup analysis demonstrated that the
decreased folate level was found in both Asian and European patients (SMD=−0.86, P<0.00001;
SMD=−0.44, P<0.00001, respectively), while there were no significant differences in patients from
other areas (P>0.05). Sensitivity analysis confirmed that these results were stable and reliable, no
publication bias existed in our meta-analysis based on Egger's and Begg's tests (P=0.48 and 0.30,
respectively).
Conclusion: These results suggest that decreased folate may be a risk factor for schizophrenia. More
epidemiological and biochemistry studies are required to describe how folate or folate
supplementation play roles in the progress of schizophrenia.
