London 14 August, London : Vitamin D supplementation could help reduce symptoms of depression in adult patients with depression, as suggested by an analysis of 41 studies across the world.Depression is a major cause of burden of illness throughout the world.
The effectiveness of therapeutics of the current antidepressants is often insufficient, and that’s why additional methods to reduce the symptoms of depression are being looked for, such as through research on nutrition.
Vitamin D is thought to regulate the central nervous system’s functions and the disruptions of that have been linked with depression.
Researchers from the University of Eastern Finland analysed 41 studies from all over the globe to examine the effectiveness of vitamin D in helping to reduce symptoms of depression in adults through randomised placebo-controlled studies in various populations.
The study results are presented in the journal Critical Reviews in Food Science and Nutrition, showed that vitamin D supplementation is more effective than placebo in helping to reduce symptoms of depression in patients with depression.
There were significant variations in the dosages of vitamin D used, however, the average vitamin D supplementation was between 50 and 100 micrograms daily.
“Despite the wide range of this meta-analysis reliability of evidence is still low due to the diversity of the populations being studied and also due to the possibility of bias that is associated with an extensive amount of studies,” said doctoral researcher and lead author Tuomas Mikola of the Institute of Clinical Medicine at the University of Eastern Finland.
“These findings will spur to conduct high-quality clinical trials in people with depression in order to provide more information on the potential impact of vitamin D supplements in the treatment of depression, Mikola said.
Additionally studies conducted on cross-sections have found an association between symptoms of depression as well as vitamin D deficiency.
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