Vitamin D status in psychotic disorder patients and healthy controls--The influence of ethnic background

Psychiatry Res. 2015 Dec 15;230(2):616-21. doi: 10.1016/j.psychres.2015.10.015. Epub 2015 Oct 20.

Abstract

Vitamin D deficiency is common among patients with psychotic disorders and could be due to unknown disease mechanisms or contingent factors. However most studies are performed in chronic patients and have often failed to address the influence of ethnicity on vitamin D levels in clinical samples. We investigated serum concentrations of 25-hydroxy vitamin D (S-25 OH D) in first episode patients compared to patients with multi episodes and healthy controls; with a specific focus on differences between visible ethnic minorities and participants from the majority population. A total of 284 participants were included in this cross-sectional study. First episode patients with a DSM-IV psychotic disorder were matched on age, gender and ethnicity to participants from a multi episode patient sample (1:1) and healthy controls (1:2). We did not find any differences between either patient groups or the healthy controls, but participants from visible ethnic minorities had significantly lower S-25 OH D than participants from the majority population. This implies that S-25 OH D should be routinely measured in persons from visible ethnic minorities since low levels are associated with higher levels of depressive symptoms.

Keywords: Calcitriol; Case-control studies; Early diagnosis; Ethnicity; Schizophrenia; Seasons.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Adult
  • Case-Control Studies
  • Cross-Sectional Studies
  • Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders
  • Ethnicity / psychology*
  • Female
  • Healthy Volunteers
  • Humans
  • Male
  • Minority Groups / psychology*
  • Psychotic Disorders / blood
  • Psychotic Disorders / ethnology*
  • Vitamin D / analogs & derivatives
  • Vitamin D / blood
  • Vitamin D Deficiency / ethnology*
  • Vitamin D Deficiency / psychology
  • Young Adult

Substances

  • Vitamin D
  • 25-hydroxyvitamin D