Written by Greg Arnold, DC, CSCS. Researchers found a significant correlation between vitamin D blood levels and depression, with 45% of subjects with insufficient vitamin D blood levels having depressive symptoms compared to only 26% of those with sufficient vitamin D blood levels.
Depression is thought to affect 1 in 4 American women and 1 in 6 American men (1). With research showing depression to be associated with premature death (2) as well as increased likelihood of disability and economic burden (3), ways to effectively deal with depression are needed.
Now a new study (4) suggests one simple approach may be to focus on getting enough vitamin D. The study involved 185 college females between the ages of 18 and 25. They completed a survey on depressive symptoms called the Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression (5) every week for 4 weeks and also had their vitamin D blood levels measured every week for 4 weeks. The researchers classified vitamin D insufficiency as having blood levels less than 30 nanograms/Liter. The researchers recruited subjects in three different seasons (86 subjects in the fall, 36 in winter, 63 in spring) to see if seasonal changes also affected vitamin D blood levels.
The researchers found a significant correlation between vitamin D blood levels and depression (p < 0.05), with 45% of subjects with insufficient vitamin D blood levels having depressive symptoms compared to only 26% of those with sufficient vitamin D blood levels. The researchers also found a significant (p < 0.05) correlation between the depression survey score and the season the subjects were recruited. Depressive scores were lowest in the fall (12.3) and highest in the winter (16.4), causing the researchers to state “seasonal changes in vitamin D may be an under appreciated mechanism in models of seasonality and Seasonal Affective Disorder.”
For the researchers, “Vitamin D deficiency and insufficiency occur at high rates in healthy young women, and lower vitamin D levels are related to clinically significant depressive symptoms. Supplementation is a simple, low cost, and low risk intervention. Given the lifespan health risks associated with insufficiency (6), supplementation is warranted whether or not the modest role of vitamin D in depression observed here generalizes more broadly” and that “Future research on multi-dimensional etiological models of seasonal depression should include measures of vitamin D levels.” Finally, “Controlled trials are needed to examine the extent to which vitamin D supplementation can prevent seasonal and non-seasonal forms of depression.”
Source: Kerr, David CR, et al. “Associations between vitamin D levels and depressive symptoms in healthy young adult women.” Psychiatry research 227.1 (2015): 46-51.
© 2015 Published by Elsevier Ireland Ltd.
Posted March 24, 2015.
Greg Arnold is a Chiropractic Physician practicing in Hauppauge, NY. You can contact Dr. Arnold directly by emailing him at PitchingDoc@msn.com or visiting his web site at www.PitchingDoc.com.
References:
- Kessler RC. The epidemiology of major depressive disorder: results from the National Comorbidity Survey Replication (NCS-R).JAMA 2003; 289: 3095–3105
- Chesney E. Risks of all-cause and suicide mortality in mental disorders: a meta-review. World Psychiatry 2014; 13:153–160.
- Greenberg PE. The economic burden of depression in the United States: how did it change between 1990 and 2000? The Journal of Clinical Psychiatry; 64:1465–1475
- Kerr,D.C.R.,et al., Associations between vitamin D levels and depressive symptoms in healthy young adult women. Psychiatry Research (2015), http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.psychres.2015.02.016
- Radloff LS. The CES-D scale: a self-report depression scale for research in the general population. Applied Psychological Measurement 1977; 1:385–401
- Giovannucci,E.,2009. Vitamin D and cancer incidence in the Harvard cohorts. Annals of Epidemiology 2009; 19:84–88
