[Metabolic changes of iron in mental patients]

Ferro metabolism abnormalities have been related to behavioral and intelectual performance, depression and low response antidepressants in adults. For studying the clinical meaning of those abnormalities in psychiatric patients, sideremia, transferrin and transferrin saturation level were determined in 228 in-patients. The results show a decreased sideremia and transferrin saturation level in elder patients, and more severe abnormalities in patients with a history of somatic disorders and in those with current somatic pathology associates to psychiatric pathology. There is an increasing cortisol postdexametasona in low transferrin patients, as the only data that relate ferro metabolism and depression. Relation between ferro metabolism and: response to treatment, neuropsychological performance and others demographic, clinical, developmental and biological features of the studied have not been detected.