Depression reduced if use more than 2,800 IU of vitamin D – meta-analysis Aug 2022

Effect of vitamin D supplementation on the incidence and prognosis of depression: An updated meta-analysis based on randomized controlled trials

Front. Public Health 10:903547. doi: 10.3389/fpubh.2022.903547
Fei Xielf, Tongmin Huang2t, Dandi Lou3, Rongrong Fu3, Chaoxiong Ni4, Jiaze Hong2 and Lingyan Ruan1*
department of Endocrinology, Ningbo Yinzhou No. 2 Hospital, Ningbo, China, 2The Second Clinical Medical College, Zhejiang Chinese Medical University, Hangzhou, China, 3The First Clinical Medical College, Zhejiang Chinese Medical University, Hangzhou, China, department of Nephrology, QingChun Hospital of Zhejiang Province, Hangzhou, China

Background: There have been several controversies about the correlation between vitamin D and depression. This study aimed to investigate the relationship between vitamin D supplementation and the incidence and prognosis of depression and to analyze the latent effects of subgroups including population and supplement strategy.

Methods: A systematic search for articles before July 2021 in databases (PubMed, EMBASE, Web of Science, and the Cochrane Library) was conducted to investigate the effect of vitamin D supplementation on the incidence and prognosis of depression.

Results: This meta-analysis included 29 studies with 4,504 participants,indicating that the use of vitamin D was beneficial to a decline in the incidence of depression (SMD: -0.23) and improvement of depression treatment (SMD: -0.92). Subgroup analysis revealed that people with low vitamin D levels (<50 nmol/L) and females could notably benefit from vitamin D in both prevention and treatment of depression. The effects of vitamin D with a daily supplementary dose of >2,800 IU and intervention duration of >8 weeks were considered significant in both prevention and treatment analyses. Intervention duration <8 weeks was recognized as effective in the treatment group.

Conclusion: Our results demonstrate that vitamin D has a beneficial impact on both the incidence and the prognosis of depression. Whether suffering from depression or not, individuals with low vitamin D levels, dose >2,800 IU, intervention duration >8 weeks, and all females are most likely to benefit from vitamin D supplementation.
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Vitamin D Life - Depression category contains

• 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
• Seasonal Affective Disorder is treated by both bright light and Vitamin D because both make serotonin
• 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 260 items in the Depression category in Vitamin D Life

Some recent publications

• Depression in seniors greatly reduced by Vitamin D (e.g. 50,000 IU) – 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

Intervention of Vitamin D for Depression 20 studies

This list is automatically updated

Meta-analyses of Vitamin D and Depression 17 studies

This list is automatically updated

Depression is helped best by more than Vitamin D monotherapy

Depression and Omega-3 29 studies

Depression and Magnesium 14 studies