Nicotinic Acid Long-Term Effectiveness in a Patient with Bipolar Type II Disorder: A Case of Vitamin Dependency
Nutrients 2018, 10(2), 134;
https://doi.org/10.3390/nu10020134
Bo H. Jonsson
Centre for Psychiatry Research, Department of Clinical Neuroscience, Karolinska Institutet, & Stockholm Health Care Services, Stockholm County Council, Norra Stationsgatan 69, SE-113 64 Stockholm, Sweden
Received: 31 December 2017 / Revised: 23 January 2018 / Accepted: 25 January 2018 / Published: 27 January 2018
Abstract
Nicotinic acid (NA), often called niacin, a form of vitamin B3, is a water-soluble nutrient found in animal and vegetarian foods. Vitamin B3 for healthy people is considered to be needed in doses of less than 20 mg daily. In higher doses, NA has been
described to be beneficial in some patients with psychiatric disorders. This report describes a male patient with bipolar type II disorder who for many years had been treated with lithium and other medications applied in affective disorders. These
pharmacological drugs had beneficial effects but were at times insufficient. When the patient was prescribed NA, he experienced a comparatively strong effect. Slowly it was discovered that the patient could lower and cease all medications except NA. For
over 11 years he has been stable and calm with NA and currently takes 1 g three times daily. When not taking NA, he consistently became anxious and depressed within 2–3 days. The resumption of NA resulted in a normal state usually within 1 day. This
finding has been described as a vitamin dependency. The paper discusses possible mechanisms for the effect of NA in this patient. Further studies are needed to investigate the prevalence of vitamin B3 dependency and the biochemical explanations for this
phenomenon.
Keywords: nicotinic acid; niacin; vitamin B3; bipolar disorder; anxiety; mood This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. (CC BY 4.0).
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