Autism is associated with low vitamin D – meta-analysis

Created October 2015

Serum concentration of 25-hydroxyvitamin D in autism spectrum disorder: a systematic review and meta-analysis

European Child & Adolescent Psychiatry, pp 1-10, online: 29 October 2015 doi: 10.1080/1028415X.2015.1123847

Tiantian Wang, Ling Shan, Lin Du, Junyan Feng, Zhida Xu, Wouter G. Staal, Feiyong Jia [email protected]

Vitamin D may play an important role in the etiology of Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD).

Vitamin D is regarded as a neuroactive steroid affecting brain development and function.

It plays an essential role in myelination, which is important for connectivity in the brain.

Studies have shown that

  • decreased vitamin D levels in patients,

  • decreased maternal vitamin D levels during pregnancy, and

  • decreased exposure to solar UVB

might increase the risk for ASD.

In addition, autism symptoms and global functioning may improve after vitamin D supplementation .

Here, we sought to aggregate information from previous publications on vitamin D levels and ASD, in order to achieve a higher statistical power and thereby to determine the validity of vitamin D deficiency as a risk factor for ASD. For this meta-analysis, 11 studies met the inclusion and exclusion criteria, accounting for a total of 870 ASD patients and 782 healthy controls.

Levels of serum 25(OH) D in participants with ASD were significantly lower than controls, suggesting that lower vitamin D level might be a risk factor for ASD.

Summary table from the PDF

Note that all of the trials which had controls with inadequate level of vitamin D had poor results

Imagine how much better the results would have been if the trials with inadequate vitamin D were ignored

image

* Overview Autism and vitamin D* Cutting edge therapies in autism (lots about vitamin D) – Sept 2015* Autism decreased in 8 out of 10 children supplemented with vitamin D – April 2015* Most Autism Risk factors are associated with low vitamin D - March 2014* Meta-analysis of Vitamin D **category listing has items along with related searches** * Autism treated by Vitamin D: Dr. Cannell - video June 2013 includes many reasons why he believes Autism is related to Vitamin D {include} The TOP articles in Autism and Vitamin D are listed here: {category}

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Tags: Autism Meta-analysis