Our bodies require enough amounts of vitamin D to operate effectively – both physically and psychologically – and there is mounting evidence associating vitamin D insufficiency to depression.
According to a recent study of 41 prior research, taking vitamin D supplements helps reduce depressed symptoms in patients who have previously been diagnosed with depression, offering up a potential alternative therapy option.
Vitamin D is thought to help regulate various functions in the central nervous system, in addition to controlling calcium and phosphate levels in the body — and previous animal research suggests that it can contribute to controlling chemical balances in the brain, which may explain the link between vitamin D. (d) mental health.
“These findings will motivate additional high-level clinical studies in depressed patients to shed more light on the possible function of vitamin D supplementation in depression therapy,” says Thomas Mikkola, PhD researcher and main investigator at the University of Eastern Finland.
The current study included 53,235 study participants from 41 different trials, including people with and without depression, people using vitamin D supplements and those taking placebos, and people with various physical impairments.
The standard vitamin D dosage was 50-100 mcg per day, however the quantities utilised varied. Vitamin D pills were shown to be more helpful than placebos at alleviating depression symptoms in depressed subjects.
According to the experts, vitamin D supplementation appears to be most helpful over shorter periods of time (less than 12 weeks). However, placebos had a little stronger effect on depression symptoms among healthy people.
“Our findings suggest that vitamin D supplementation is effective in both persons with major depressive disorder and patients with milder and clinically severe depression symptoms,” the researchers said in their published report.
With depression being acknowledged as the greatest cause of disability globally, impacting over 280 million people each year, and antidepressants not being successful for everyone, other therapeutic alternatives must be investigated rapidly.
Before we get too far ahead of ourselves, the data we have so far is insufficient to indicate that low vitamin D levels cause depression or that supplementing is an effective therapy. Although this new study found a link, earlier studies was inconclusive.
While this type of analysis is useful for comparing results across a large number of people, the different methods and factors in each individual study make drawing general conclusions difficult – despite the fact that much work has been done to correlate the information across the studies as a whole.
Critical Reviews in Food Science and Nutrition reported the findings.
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