Clinical trial of iron therapy of psychomotor function in anaemic women.

A variety of aspects of psychomotor function were assessed in 47 women before and after iron therapy. These women, all of whom had initial haemoglobin levels below 10.5 g./100 ml., had been drawn from a population sample of 2,283 women seen at a haematological screening survey. There was no evidence of any beneficial effect of a rise in haemoglobin level on psychomotor function or on symptoms. Possibly this is because if an effect does occur it is unlikely to be apparent unless the haemoglobin level is very low. If this is true then anaemia is probably a rare cause of symptoms or impairment in psychomotor function in the community.