Browsing by Author "Sahu, Anupama"

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    Vitamin B12 Deficiency Presenting as Acute Psychosis.
    (Akshantala Enterprises Private Limited, 2020-02) Sahoo, Manoj Kumar; Sahu, Anupama; Biswas, Harshita; Agarwal, Sanjay Kumar
    Psychiatric symptoms attributable to vitamin B12 deficiency have been described for decades. Vitamin B12 deficiency is common in developing countries and its prevalence ranges up to 67% among Indian population.1 The earlier reports are for the most part in accordance with more recent ones, despite being diagnostically less specific in psychiatric and haematological terms. These symptoms seem to fall into several clinically separate categories like slow cerebration, confusion, memory changes, delirium, with or without hallucinations and/or delusions, depression, acute psychotic states, and (more rarely) reversible manic and schizophreniform states.2 Apart from these conditions, some cases of dementia, violent behaviour and fatigue have also been documented to be caused by vitamin B12 deficiency.3 Reports of patients initially presenting to psychiatric facilities without associated haematological manifestations are rare. There are a few case reports of acute psychosis attributed to vitamin B12 deficiency, but more evidence is required to substantiate and establish this association.4 We describe three patients who developed acute psychosis accompanied by features suggestive of organic aetiology. They were found to have cobalamin deficiency in the absence of typical neurological or haematological abnormalities.