The Influence of Vitamin D Intake and Status on Mental Health in Children: A Systematic Review
Nutrients. 2021 Mar 16;13(3):952. doi: 10.3390/nu13030952.
Dominika Głąbska 1, Aleksandra Kołota 1, Katarzyna Lachowicz 1, Dominika Skolmowska 1, Małgorzata Stachoń 1, Dominika Guzek 2
Mental Illness and Vitamin D
Bipolar Disorder may be related to cellular, not blood Vitamin D
Anxiety studies include
14+ VitaminDWiki pages with ANXIETY in title
This list is automatically updated
Depression summary
- 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
- 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
- Yet another study confirms Depression is treated by weekly Vitamin D (50,000 IU)– RCT Dec 2019
- 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
266 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
- Depression reduced if take more than 5,000 IU of vitamin D daily – umbrella meta-analysis – Jan 2023
- Post-partum depression and low Vitamin D - many studies
- Depression: Low vitamin D in the strongest of 11 risk factors – Jan 2023
Studies in both categories ADHD and Children are listed here:
- Depressed infants have very low Vitamin D (7.5 ng) – June 2023
- Infants getting an additional 800 IU of vitamin D for 2 years had 60% fewer psychiatric symptoms at age 7 – RCT May 2023
- Mental health of children: vast majority of studies reviewed found that vitamin D helped – March 2021
- 2.5 X more health compaints in children and youths if low vitamin D – Jan 2021
- Children with allergies often depressed and anxious (low micro-nutrients, such as vitamin D, were not mentioned) – July 2019
 Download the PDF from VitaminDWiki
A potential role of vitamin D in some components of mental health is currently suggested, but the analyses are conducted mainly for adults, while for young individuals mental health is especially important, due to its lifelong effects. The aim of the study was to analyze the association between vitamin D intake or status and mental health in children within a systematic review of literature, including both intervention and observational studies. The literature search was conducted according to the PRISMA guidelines and it covered peer-reviewed studies included in databases of PubMed and Web of Science until October 2019. The studies presenting either vitamin D intake, or vitamin D status in human subjects were allowed (excluding subjects with intellectual disabilities, eating disorders and neurological disorders), while for mental health the various methods of assessment and wide scope of factors were included. The bias was assessed using the Newcastle-Ottawa Scale (NOS). The review was registered in the PROSPERO database (CRD42020155779).
A number of 7613 studies after duplicate removing were extracted by two independent researchers, followed by screening and assessment for eligibility, conducted by two independent researchers in two steps (based on title and abstract). Afterwards, the full texts were obtained and after reviewing, a number of 24 studies were included. The synthetic description of the results was prepared, structured around exposure (vitamin D supplementation/status) and outcome (components of mental health).
The included studies were conducted either in groups of healthy individuals, or individuals with mental health problems, and they assessed following issues:- behavior problems,
- violence behaviors,
- anxiety,
- depressive symptoms/depression,
- aggressive disorder,
- psychotic features,
- bipolar disorder,
- obsessive compulsive disorder,
- suicidal incident,
- as well as general patterns, as follows:
- mental health, level of distress, quality of life, well-being, mood, sleep patterns.
The vast majority of assessed studies, including the most prominent ones (based on the NOS score) supported potential positive influence of vitamin D on mental health in children. As a limitation of the analysis, it should be indicated that studies conducted so far presented various studied groups, outcomes and psychological measures, so more studies are necessary to facilitate comparisons and deepen the observations. Nevertheless, vitamin D intake within a properly balanced diet or as a supplementation, except for a safe sun exposure, should be indicated as an element supporting mental health in children, so it should be recommended to meet the required 25(OH)cholecalciferol blood level in order to prevent or alleviate mental health problems.
From PDF
The summary of observations and conclusions for included studies of association between vitamin D and mental health, with the total NOS score are described in Table 10. It was observed that for the vast majority of included studies, both intervention and observational ones, the results supported beneficial association.
Only in case of 2 studies, no effect of vitamin D was stated for bipolar disorder and major depressive disorder [51] and mental health (assessed using DSM-V criteria) [55].
In case of three studies the effect of vitamin D was inconclusive, as it was observed only for some of applied analysis [50,60] or depending on the studied component of obsessive compulsive disorder [52]. However, while the total NOS score is taken into account, it should be indicated that all the studies of low risk of bias support the positive effect of vitamin D [47,62,63].Mental health of children: vast majority of studies reviewed found that vitamin D helped – March 20216187 visitors, last modified 03 Apr, 2021, This page is in the following categories (# of items in each category)Attached files
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