Vitamin D deficiency Linked to Schizophrenia

Researchers have found a link between vitamin D deficiency and schizophrenia.

Schizophrenia is a mental health condition where the affected person suffers from hallucinations. The disorder affects as many 24 million people worldwide.

In the current study, researchers found that people with vitamin D deficiency were two times more likely to be diagnosed with schizophrenia than people who had normal levels of vitamin D.

"This is the first comprehensive meta-analysis to study the relationship between the two conditions," said Ahmad Esmaillzadeh, PhD, of the Isfahan University of Medical Sciences in Isfahan, Iran, one of the study authors. "When we examined the findings of several observational studies on vitamin D and schizophrenia, we found people with schizophrenia have lower vitamin D levels than healthy people. Vitamin D deficiency is quite common among people with schizophrenia."

Vitamin D helps the body absorb calcium. Exposure to sunlight helps the body produce vitamin, which is why it is also called as the "sunshine vitamin." The vitamin can also be obtained through diet. An estimated one billion people worldwide suffer from vitamin D deficiency.

Previous research has shown that low levels of vitamin D can lead to depression and even up early death risk.

The data for the current study came from 19 observational studies that looked at the link between schizophrenia and vitamin D. in all, 2,804 adults were part of the study.

The average difference in vitamin D levels between schizophrenia patients and control group was 5.91 ng/ml.

Researchers found that people with low levels of vitamin D were 2.16 times more likely to be diagnosed with schizophrenia people who weren't vitamin D deficient. Also, 65 percent of schizophrenia patients had vitamin D deficiency.

"There is a growing trend in the nutrition science field to consider vitamin D and its relationship to conditions such as diabetes, cancer, heart disease and depression," Esmaillzadeh said in a news release. "Our findings support the theory that vitamin D may have a significant impact on psychiatric health. More research is needed to determine how the growing problem of vitamin D deficiency may be affecting our overall health."

The study is published in the Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism.