Low Vitamin D is associated with risk of Depression 5X, Stress 4.8 X, and Anxiety 3.9 X (Saudi Arabia college students) – July 2023

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Impact of Vitamin D Deficiency on Mental Health in University Students: A Cross-Sectional Study

Healthcare (Basel) . 2023 Jul 23;11(14):2097. doi: 10.3390/healthcare11142097.
Mansour Almuqbil 1, Moneer E Almadani 2, Salem Ahmad Albraiki 3, Ali Musharraf Alamri 3, Ahmed Alshehri 4, Adel Alghamdi 5, Sultan Alshehri 6, Syed Mohammed Basheeruddin Asdaq 7

Students pursuing a university education are vulnerable to psychological burdens such as depression, anxiety, and stress. The frequency of vitamin D deficiency, on the other hand, is extensively recognized worldwide, and vitamin D regulates various neurological pathways in the brain that control psychological function. Therefore, the goal of this cross-sectional study was to determine the relationship between vitamin D deficiency and psychological burden among university students in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. During March-May 2021 in Riyadh, a cross-sectional comparative study survey was delivered to university students. The DASS-21 scale was used to determine the severity of the psychological burden. Both univariate and binomial regression analyses were conducted to analyze the level of significance and influence of several factors on the development of psychological burden. The data were analyzed with SPSS-IBM, and a p value of <0.05 was considered significant. Of the 480 students recruited for the study, 287 (59.79%) had a vitamin D deficiency. Significantly (p = 0.048), a high proportion of the vitamin D-deficient students attained a low or moderate GPA compared to the control cohort.
The prevalence of depression, anxiety, and stress among the vitamin D-deficient students was 60.35%, 6.31%, and 75.08%, respectively, which was significantly (p < 0.05) different from the control group.
The odds of developing

• depression (OR = 4.96; CI 2.22-6.78; p < 0.001),
• anxiety (OR = 3.87; CI 2.55-6.59; p < 0.001), and
• stress (OR = 4.77; CI 3.21-9.33; p < 0.001)

were significantly higher in the vitamin D-deficient group. The research shows a strong association between psychological stress and vitamin D deficiency. To promote the mental health and psychological wellbeing of university students, it is critical to create awareness about the adequate consumption of vitamin D. Additionally, university students should be made aware of the likelihood of a loss in academic achievement owing to vitamin D deficiency, as well as the cascade effect of psychological burden.
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Intervention of Vitamin D for Depression

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Meta-analyses of Vitamin D and Depression

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VitaminDWiki – Depression contains

• Low vitamin D is associated with most types of depression, Including: Seasonal Affective Disorder. manic depression, bipolar disorder, dysthymia, Depression during/after pregnancy, Seniors, Suicide
• Depression substantially reduced by Vitamin D, Omega-3, Magnesium, etc – many studies
• Major Depressive Disorder RCTs often use Vitamin D: 50,000 IU weekly or single 300,000 IU - Review May 2025
• Depression 1.6 X more likely if low Vitamin D, taking Vitamin D reduces depression – umbrella of meta-analyses – Jan 2023
• Depression: Low vitamin D in the strongest of 11 risk factors – Jan 2023
• Depression treated by Omega-3 (again) – meta-analysis Aug 2019
• Supplementing with Vitamin D (or getting more sun) decreases most types of depression as well as drugs
• Omega-3, Magnesium, and St. Johns' Wort also decrease depression
  • Speculate that some combination (Vit D, Omega-3, Mg, St John's) will decrease depression even more
  • Note: Both Omega-3 and Magnesium increase the amount of vitamin D which gets to tissues
• Antidepressants reduce cellular Vitamin D, increasing fractures, CVD, etc. - Oct 2022
• There are 273 items in the Depression category in VitaminDWiki

Some recent publications

• Depression in seniors greatly reduced by Vitamin D (50,000 IU weekly) – meta-analysis June 2023
• Post-partum depression and low Vitamin D - many studies
• Depression: Low vitamin D in the strongest of 11 risk factors – Jan 2023

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18+ VitaminDWiki pages have ANXIETY in the title

This list is automatically updated

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VitaminDWiki – Mental stress, physical stress associations with low vitamin D - many studies