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Letter to the Editor

Published Online: 1 July 2005

The Significance of Homocysteine Levels in Schizophrenia

COLIN O’DONNELL, M.B.B.Ch., M.R.C.Psych., and TIM STEPHENS, B.Sc.Authors Info & Affiliations

Publication: American Journal of Psychiatry

https://doi.org/10.1176/ajp.162.7.1387-a

To the Editor: We noted with interest the findings of Donald C. Goff, M.D., et al. (1) but question whether the comparison group they used was representative of homocysteine measurement. Differences in age and homocysteine measurement and an absence of dietary history and genotyping for methylenetetrahydrofolate reductase, which are important confounding variables, may have biased the homocysteine analysis.

The study group’s mean age was 20 years younger than the comparison group’s (the sixth Framingham Offspring cohort subgroup). Homocysteine levels rise progressively with age, approximately doubling from childhood to old age. There is a bias toward higher comparison homocysteine levels as a result (2, 3).

The accuracy of homocysteine differs among methods and laboratories. This effect had not been controlled. The Framingham Offspring comparison group’s homocysteine level was measured with high-performance liquid chromatography with fluorescent detection, whereas the study group used fluorescence polarization immunoassay. The use of a local comparison group with the same method and laboratory is recommended (3).

The Framingham Offspring Study shows that mandatory fortification policy has reduced the prevalence of low folate status (i.e., <3.0 ng/ml) by more than 90% and the prevalence of mild fasting hyperhomocysteinemia (homocysteine concentrations >130 mmol/liter) by about 50% among its population-based cohort of middle-age to elderly U.S. citizens (4).

We recommend that the assessment of homocysteine requires the measurement of known confounding variables, especially in smaller group sizes, from folic-acid-fortified regions. Contrary to larger previous studies with local comparison groups showing increased homocysteine levels in schizophrenia, these results should be treated with caution (5, 6).

References

Goff DC, Bottiglieri T, Arning E, Shih V, Freudenreich O, Evins AE, Henderson DC, Baer L, Coyle J: Folate, homocysteine, and negative symptoms in schizophrenia. Am J Psychiatry 2004; 161:1705–1708

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Information & Authors

Information

Published In

American Journal of Psychiatry

Volume 162 • Number 7 • July 2005

Pages: 1387-a - 1388

History

Published online: 1 July 2005

Published in print: July 2005

Authors

Affiliations

COLIN O’DONNELL, M.B.B.Ch., M.R.C.Psych.

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TIM STEPHENS, B.Sc.

Melbourne, Victoria, Australia

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The Significance of Homocysteine Levels in Schizophrenia

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