Low serum levels of 25-hydroxyvitamin D (25-OHD) among psychiatric out-patients in Sweden: Relations with season, age, ethnic origin and psychiatric diagnosis.
J Steroid Biochem Mol Biol. 2010 Mar 7.
Humble MB, Gustafsson S, Bejerot S.
Department of Clinical Neuroscience, Division of Psychiatry, St. Göran, Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm, Sweden.
In a chart review at a psychiatric out-patient department, latitude 59.3 degrees N, a sample of patients with tests of serum 25-hydroxy-vitamin D (25-OHD) and plasma intact parathyroid hormone (iPTH) was collected, together with demographic data and psychiatric diagnoses. During 19 months, 117 patients were included. Their median 25-OHD was 45nmol/l; considerably lower than published reports on Swedish healthy populations. Only 14.5% had recommended levels (over 75).
In 56.4%, 25-OHD was under 50nmol/l, which is related to several unfavourable health outcomes. Seasonal variation of 25-OHD was blunted.
Patients with ADHD had unexpectedly low iPTH levels. Middle East, South-East Asian or African ethnic origin, being a young male and having a diagnosis of autism spectrum disorder or schizophrenia predicted low 25-OHD levels.
Hence, the diagnoses that have been hypothetically linked to developmental (prenatal) vitamin D deficiency, schizophrenia and autism, had the lowest 25-OHD levels in this adult sample, supporting the notion that vitamin D deficiency may not only be a predisposing developmental factor but also relate to the adult patients' psychiatric state.
This is further supported by the considerable psychiatric improvement that coincided with vitamin D treatment in some of the patients whose deficiency was treated. Copyright © 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. PMID: 20214992