[Clinical vitaminology]

This paper deals with overview on clinical vitaminology including as follows: 1. Historical trends of prevalence of vitamin deficiency in Japan. 2. Recent status of number of patient with vitamin deficiency referred to "patients survey" by Ministry of Health and Welfare. 3. Notion and characteristic of vitamin dependency. 4. Types of vitamin deficiency. i.e. a simple type and a tape caused by disturbance of utilization. 5. Vitamin metabolism of hospitalized elderly patients. 6. Pharmacological role of vitamins.