Vitamin D Deficiency Leads to Two-Fold Increased Risk of Schizophrenia

Scientists have revealed that vitamin D deficiency leads to a two-fold increased risk of schizophrenia.

Schizophrenia is a long term mental disorder that triggers a wide range of various psychological symptoms. This challenging mental disorder appears in late adolescence or early adulthood, but it can emerge at any time in life. People with chronic condition interpret reality abnormally and experience a combination of hallucinations and delusions. The disease affects 1.1 percent of the U.S. population, according to the National Institute of Mental Health.

Schizophrenia is extremely prevalent in high latitudes and cold climate; hence, researchers have theorized that there may be a strong association between vitamin D and the disorder.

Vitamin D, received either from food or sunlight, helps the body absorb calcium and is needed for bone and muscle health. Worldwide, over 1 billion people are estimated to have low levels of vitamin D due to limited exposure to sunshine.

"This is the first comprehensive meta-analysis to study the relationship between the two conditions," said one of the study authors Ahmad Esmaillzadeh, PhD, of the Isfahan University of Medical Sciences in Isfahan, Iran. "When we examined the findings of several observational studies on vitamin D and schizophrenia, we found people with schizophrenia have lower vitamin D levels than healthy people. Vitamin D deficiency is quite common among people with schizophrenia."

In the current study, the researchers reviewed 19 observational studies that evaluated the link between vitamin D and schizophrenia.  The studies looked at the vitamin D levels and mental health of 2,804 adults' participants. The vitamin D levels were tested using blood samples.

The researchers noticed that people with schizophrenia had a significant reduced level of vitamin D in their blood when compared to the control groups. The average difference in vitamin D levels between schizophrenia patients and the control participants, was measured as - 5.91 ng/ml.

Those with low levels of the vitamin were nearly 2.16 times more likely to have schizophrenia when compared to those with sufficient levels of vitamin D in their bloodstream. Also, 65 percent of the participants with schizophrenia had low levels of vitamins D.

"There is a growing trend in the nutrition science field to consider vitamin D and its relationship to conditions such as diabetes, cancer, heart disease and depression," Esmaillzadeh said. "Our findings support the theory that vitamin D may have a significant impact on psychiatric health. More research is needed to determine how the growing problem of vitamin D deficiency may be affecting our overall health."

The finding was documented in the Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism.