According to a meta-analysis conducted by an international team of researchers, it is suggested that vitamin D supplementation may alleviate depressive symptoms in adults with depression.
Depressive symptoms cause a significant disease burden worldwide. The therapeutic efficacy of current antidepressants is usually insufficient, so other ways of palliating the symptoms of depression have been sought, for example, from nutritional research.
The study findings were published in the journal Critical Reviews in Food Science and Nutrition.
Vitamin D is believed to regulate the functions of the central nervous system, disturbances of which have been associated with depression. Additionally, cross-sectional studies have found an association between depressive symptoms and vitamin D deficiency. However, previous meta-analyses on the effects of vitamin D supplementation on depression have been inconclusive. In a meta-analysis, the results of several different studies are combined and analyzed statistically.
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The new meta-analysis on the association of vitamin D supplementation with depression is the largest published to date and includes the results of 41 studies from around the world. These studies have investigated the efficacy of vitamin D in relieving depressive symptoms in adults using randomized placebo-controlled trials in different populations. The studies included those conducted in patients with depression, in the general population and in people with various physical conditions. The results of the meta-analysis show that vitamin D supplementation is more effective than a placebo in relieving depressive symptoms in people with depression. There were important differences in the doses of vitamin D used, but vitamin D supplementation was typically 50 to 100 micrograms per day.
“Despite the broad scope of this meta-analysis, the certainty of the evidence remains low due to the heterogeneity of the populations studied and the risk of bias associated with a large number of studies,” said lead author and doctoral researcher Tuomas Mikola of says the Institute of Clinical Medicine at the University of Eastern Finland. The meta-analysis is part of Mikola’s doctoral thesis.
“These findings will encourage further high-level clinical trials in patients with depression to shed more light on the possible role of vitamin D supplementation in the treatment of depression,” Mikola concludes.
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