Serum 25-Hydroxyvitamin D3 and D2 and Non-Clinical Psychotic Experiences in Childhood
Anna-Maija Tolppanen 1, Adrian Sayers 2, William D. Fraser 3, Glyn Lewis 2, Stanley Zammit 2,4, John McGrath 5, Debbie A. Lawlor 1 D.A.Lawlor at bristol.ac.uk
1 MRC Centre for Causal Analyses in Translational Epidemiology, School of Social and Community Medicine, University of Bristol, Bristol, United Kingdom,
2 School of Social and Community Medicine, University of Bristol, Bristol, United Kingdom,
3 Norwich Medical School, University of East Anglia, Norwich, United Kingdom,
4 MRC Centre for Neuropsychiatric Genetics and Genomics, Cardiff University, Cardiff, United Kingdom,
5 Queensland Centre for Mental Health Research and Department of Psychiatry and Queensland Brain Institute, University of Queensland, St Lucia, Australia
Objective: Non-clinical psychotic experiences are common and distressing. It has been hypothesized that early life vitamin D deficiency may be a risk factor for psychosis-related outcomes, but it is not known if circulating concentrations of 25-hydroxyvitamin D (25(OH)D) during childhood are associated with psychosis-related outcomes or whether the two different forms of 25(OH)D, (25(OH)D3 and 25(OH)D2, have similar associations with psychosis-related outcomes.
Methods: We investigated the association between serum 25(OH)D3 and 25(OH)D2 concentrations and psychotic experiences in a prospective birth cohort study. Serum 25(OH)D3 and 25(OH)D2 concentrations were measured at mean age 9.8 years and psychotic experiences assessed at mean age 12.8 years by a psychologist (N = 3182).
Results: Higher 25(OH)D3 concentrations were associated with lower risk of definite psychotic experiences (adjusted odds ratio: OR (95% confidence interval: CI) 0.85 (0.75–0.95)).
Higher concentrations of 25(OH)D2 were associated with higher risk of suspected and definite psychotic experiences (adjusted odds ratio: OR (95% confidence interval: CI) 1.26 (1.11, 1.43)).
Higher 25(OD)D2 concentrations were also weakly associated with definite psychotic experiences (adjusted OR (95% CI) 1.17 (0.96, 1.43), though with wide confidence intervals including the null value.
Conclusions: Our findings of an inverse association of 25(OH)D3 with definite psychotic experiences is consistent with the hypothesis that vitamin D may protect against psychosis-related outcomes.
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