The Diagnosis

More than 1700 patients  completed our questionnaire. Respondents varied from people who were only one year into treatment to those who had been treated for decennia.

In order to establish any differences in diagnosis and treatment over the last ten years we compared a number of results from the various periods. Were things better 10 years ago than 2 years ago or vice versa

In principle everyone should receive treatment straight after the discovery of deficiency in view of the potential consequences of B12 deficiency. Unfortunately this is often not the case.

Compared to the present 10 years ago slightly more people received treatment immediately following diagnosis, though the difference is small (81% as opposed to 79%).

It seems that at that time B12 was taken into consideration earlier: 35% had had symptoms for shorter than a year whereas today 29%. From patients diagnosed with B12 deficiency between 2 and 10 years ago, 26% had had symptoms for shorter than a year. However, the amount of people having had symptoms for more than five years was 30% in all groups.

Ten years or more ago 92% were treated with injections compared to 88% at present, but nowadays more people get the correct starting dose: 65% compared to 45% then.

Generally injections are less often used as treatment, but the correct starting dosage is more often applied. This is confirmed by the fact that at present more people than before notice improvement within the first 8 weeks.