Folic acid supplements may cut suicide risk

Embargoed until: Publicly released: 2022-09-29 01:00

International

CC-0

US scientists say folic acid supplements may cut the risk of suicidal thoughts and suicide attempts. The team looked at health records for 866,586 patients, including records of supplement prescriptions, and compared those who were prescribed folic acid with people who were prescribed another supplement, vitamin B12. Overall, they found there were 261 suicides among those on a current folic acid prescription, compared with 895 suicides during months without any folic acid. Further analysis revealed a 5% decrease in suicidal events per month of additional folic acid supplementation. Looking at the results for vitamin B12, there was no link with suicide attempts, the researchers say. While this kind of study cannot establish cause and effect, the team says that if the findings are confirmed in further trials, folic acid may be a safe, inexpensive, and widely available treatment for suicidal thoughts and attempts.

Media release

From:

Attachments

Note: Not all attachments are visible to the general public. Research URLs will go live after the embargo ends.

Research JAMA, Web page The URL will go live after the embargo ends

Journal/
conference: JAMA Psychiatry

Research:Paper

Organisation/s: University of Chicago, USA

Funder: This research was supported by National Institutes of Health grant R01 MH080122, by Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (CERT) grant U18HS016973, and by resources from the Center of Excellence for Suicide Prevention, Department of Veterans Affairs.

Media Contact/s

Contact details are only visible to registered journalists.