Medscape Medical News > Psychiatry
Vitamin D Deficiency Linked to Onset of Psychosis
Deborah Brauser
November 01, 2013
Vitamin D deficiency is linked to first episodes of psychosis (FEP), new research suggests.
A study of almost 140 participants in the United Kingdom showed that those who were presenting to a psychiatric in-patient facility with an FEP had significantly lower levels of vitamin D than did their age-matched, healthy peers.
"What surprised us was the degree of difference between the patients and their matched controls, with patients being nearly 3 times as likely to have full-blown vitamin D deficiency," co?first author John Lally, MRCPsych, clinical research fellow in the IMPACT project at the Institute of Psychiatry in London, UK, and in the UK's National Psychosis Unit, told Medscape Medical News.
"However, we still don't know whether these low vitamin D levels are a part of the psychosis illness itself or whether they are purely a result of the lifestyle choices linked to its emergence," added Dr. Lally.
The investigators note that future studies are needed to examine these associations further...
