Abstract
Twenty-five inpatients of a psychiatric clinic showed high incidence of the sign of folic acid deficiency. Low serum folate levels (L. casei assay) was revealed in 64% of the patients and macrocytosis (MCV over 95μ) in 64%. Hypersegmented polymorphs were increased in 24%. Mean diameter of the nucleus of the oral epithelial cells were a little greater than normal. On the other hand, serum iron levels, formiminoglutamic acid excretion after histidine loading and myelogram were normal. After the oral administration of 5mg of folic acid for 30 days, macrocytosis and hypersegmented polymorphs disappeared. The growth of L. casei or L. leichmannii was not suppressed in vitro by addition of various anticonvulsants in the medium.
