Posted by jrbecker on November 15, 2004, at 13:08:38
In reply to Re: Vitamin D and depression » KaraS, posted by jrbecker on November 15, 2004, at 12:39:36
this was just one study, and albeit a small one, however, the finding was still interesting in that it showed that a very high dose of vit D was superior to light therapy. Unfortunately, I couldn't locate the fulltext of the study to investigate its methodology, nonetheless, it highlights further evidence for the usefulness of vitamin D in SAD.
J Nutr Health Aging. 1999;3(1):5-7.
Vitamin D vs broad spectrum phototherapy in the treatment of seasonal affective disorder.Gloth FM 3rd, Alam W, Hollis B.
The Department of Medicine, The Union Memorial Hospital, Baltimore, Maryland 21218-2895, USA.
Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD) is prevalent when vitamin D stores are typically low. Broad-spectrum light therapy includes wavelengths between 280-320 nm which allow the skin to produce vitamin D. This study was designed to test the hypothesis that vitamin D deficiency might play a role in SAD. A prospective, randomized controlled trial was conducted in a group of 15 subjects with SAD. Eight subjects received 100,000 I.U. of vitamin D and seven subjects received phototherapy. At the onset of treatment and after 1 month of therapy subjects were administered the Hamilton Depression scale, the SIGH-SAD, and the SAD-8 depression scale. All subjects also had serum levels of 25-hydroxyvitamin D (25-OH D) measured before and 1 week after intervention therapy. All subjects receiving vitamin D improved in all outcome measures. The phototherapy group showed no significant change in depression scale measures. Vitamin D status improved in both groups (74% vitamin D group, p < 0.005 and 36% phototherapy group, p < 0.01). Improvement in 25-OH D was significantly associated with improvement in depression scale scores (r2=0.26; p=0.05). Vitamin D may be an important treatment for SAD. Further studies will be necessary to confirm these findings.
Publication Types:
Clinical Trial
Randomized Controlled Trial
poster:jrbecker
thread:410247
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/alter/20041108/msgs/416257.html