Written by Greg Arnold, DC, CSCS. In a study of 1282 men and women, patients with minor and major depression had 14% lower vitamin D levels than those with no depression.
Recent research has found that 13% of adults over 55 years of age suffer from “significant depressive symptoms” (1) which play a prominent role in illness and death in these patients (2).
While depression costs employers $51 billion each year in absenteeism and lost productivity (not including high medical and pharmaceutical bills) (3), elderly people with depression have roughly 50% higher health care costs than non-depressed seniors and costs our healthcare system nearly $22 billion a year (4).
Researchers have started to look at the changing lifestyle habits of aging adults, including decreased sun exposure due to decreased outdoor activity, different housing or clothing habits, and decreased vitamin intake (5), all of which may result in decreased vitamin D blood levels.
Vitamin D is thought to play a role in mental health and depression because low vitamin D blood levels lead to an increase in parathyroid hormone (PTH). High PTH levels have been found to be accompanied by depressive disorders, which usually abate once the PTH levels are brought down (6, 7). Now a new study (8) has added support to the role of vitamin D blood levels in mental health.
In The Longitudinal Aging Study Amsterdam (9), 1282 men and women between 55 and 85 completed questionnaires on lifestyle and diet. They also provided blood samples, which were used to measure vitamin D blood levels. While nearly 39% of the men and nearly 57% of the women had “insufficient” blood levels of vitamin D (less than 20 ng/mL), the researchers found that patients with minor depressive and major depressive symptoms had vitamin D blood levels 14% lower (19 ng/mL) than patients without any depressive symptoms (22 ng/mL).
Regarding PTH levels, patients with minor depression had PTH levels that were 5% higher than non-depressed patients and 33% higher in patients with major depression.
For the researchers, “depression and depression severity…is strongly associated with lower [vitamin D blood levels] and higher PTH levels, even after adjustment for age, sex, BMI, smoking status, health status, level of physical activity, and level of urbanization.”
Source: Hoogendijk, Witte JG, Paul Lips, Miranda G. Dik, Dorly JH Deeg, Aartjan TF Beekman, and Brenda WJH Penninx. “Depression is associated with decreased 25-hydroxyvitamin D and increased parathyroid hormone levels in older adults.” Archives of general psychiatry 65, no. 5 (2008): 508-512.
Copyright © 2008, American Medical Association
Posted July 17, 2008.
References:
- Beekman AT, Copeland JR, Prince MJ. Review of community prevalence of depression in later life. Br J Psychiatry. 1999;174:307-311
- Penninx BW, Beekman AT, Honig A, Deeg DJ, Schoevers RA, van Eijk JT, van Tilburg W. Depression and cardiac mortality: results from a community-based longitudinal study. Arch Gen Psychiatry. 2001;58(3):221-227
- “Depression Programs Might Provide An Edge” posted on the Managed Care website.
- “Elderly Depressive Symptoms – What You Need To Know” posted on the Ezine Articles website.
- Michelson D, Stratakis C, Hill L, Reynolds J, Galliven E, Chrousos G, Gold P. Bone mineral density in women with depression. N Engl J Med. 1996;335(16):1176-1181
- Petersen P. Psychiatric disorders in primary hyperparathyroidism. J Clin Endocrinol Metab. 1968;28(10):1491-1495
- Watson LC, Marx CE. New onset of neuropsychiatric symptoms in the elderly: possible primary hyperparathyroidism. Psychosomatics. 2002;43(5):413-417.
- Witte JG. Depression Is Associated With Decreased 25-Hydroxyvitamin D and Increased Parathyroid Hormone Levels in Older Adults. Arch Gen Psychiatry. 2008;65(5):508-512.
- Deeg DJ, van Tilburg T, Smit JH, de Leeuw ED. Attrition in the Longitudinal Aging Study Amsterdam: the effect of differential inclusion in side studies. J Clin Epidemiol. 2002;55(4):319-328.
