Depression after pregnancy and vitamin D – Nov 2013

Vitamin D status during pregnancy and the risk of subsequent postpartum depression: a case-control study.

PLoS One. 2013 Nov 27;8(11):e80686. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0080686. eCollection 2013.
Nielsen NO1, Strøm M, Boyd HA, Andersen EW, Wohlfahrt J, Lundqvist M, Cohen A, Hougaard DM, Melbye M.

Epidemiological studies have provided evidence of an association between vitamin D insufficiency and depression and other mood disorders, and a role for vitamin D in various brain functions has been suggested. We hypothesized that low vitamin D status during pregnancy might increase the risk of postpartum depression (PPD). The objective of the study was thus to determine whether low vitamin D status during pregnancy was associated with postpartum depression. In a case-control study nested in the Danish National Birth Cohort, we measured late pregnancy serum concentrations of 25[OH]D3 in 605 women with PPD and 875 controls. Odds ratios [OR) for PPD were calculated for six levels of 25[[OH]D3. Overall, we found no association between vitamin D concentrations and risk of PPD (p = 0.08). Compared with women with vitamin D concentrations between 50 and 79 nmol/L, the adjusted odds ratios for PPD were 1.35 (95% CI: 0.64; 2.85), 0.83 (CI: 0.50; 1.39) and 1.13 (CI: 0.84; 1.51) among women with vitamin D concentrations < 15 nmol/L, 15-24 nmol/L and 25-49 nmol/L, respectively, and 1.53 (CI: 1.04; 2.26) and 1.89 (CI: 1.06; 3.37) among women with vitamin D concentrations of 80-99 nmol/L and ≥ 100 nmol/L, respectively. In an additional analysis among women with sufficient vitamin D (≥ 50 nmol/L), we observed a significant positive association between vitamin D concentrations and PPD. Our results did not support an association between low maternal vitamin D concentrations during pregnancy and risk of PPD. Instead, an increased risk of PPD was found among women with the highest vitamin D concentrations.
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PMID: 24312237


Note: The study used the amount of depression medicine taken as a proxy of PPD

"sensitivity of antidepressant use as a proxy for major depression has been evaluated by Thielen et al. [43] to be 50%."

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See also VitaminDWiki

Items tagged in both categories Depression AND Pregnancy
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