THE ASSOCIATION BETWEEN VITAMIN D AND MENTAL HEALTH: A NARRATIVE REVIEW

The present study aimed at providing a narrative description of the studies assessing the association between vitamin D and mental health. A review of the studies published in the period between 2015 and 2022 using different electronic databases (PubMed, CINAHL, Embase) was performed. The results of the studies revealed that vitamin D was associated with different mental health issues, mainly depression, Alzheimer’s disease, cognitive disturbances, suicide and autism spectrum disorder (ASD). The findings of the study showed that both vitamin D deficiency and insufficiency were risk factors for the development of these mental health disorders or even in the severity of the symptoms of these disorders. The study concluded that low levels of vitamin D is a significant factor associated with increased risk of mental health disorder. The study recommends conducting further randomized-clinical trials to further assess the association between vitamin D and mental health disorders.

Keywords: Vitamin D, Mental Health, Narrative Review, Cognitive impairment