Keeping Tabs on Vitamin B Advised with Metformin

Download Complimentary Source PDF

By John Gever, Senior Editor, MedPage Today Published: May 21, 2010 Reviewed by Robert Jasmer, MD; Associate Clinical Professor of Medicine, University of California, San Francisco and Dorothy Caputo, MA, RN, BC-ADM, CDE, Nurse Planner The association of metformin treatment with vitamin B12 deficiency was confirmed in a long-term trial, suggesting that diabetic patients receiving the popular drug would benefit from vitamin monitoring and perhaps B12 supplementation. With 4.3 years of treatment in a randomized, placebo-controlled trial, the hazard ratio for developing vitamin B12 deficiency while on metformin was 5.5 relative to placebo (95% CI 1.6 to 19.1), reported Coen Stehouwer, MD, of Maastricht University in the Netherlands, and colleagues online in BMJ./.../