Abstract
Background/Objectives: Severe mental illnesses such as schizophrenia, major depressive disorder, and bipolar disorder are often accompanied by metabolic comorbidities. While the role of vitamins in physical health is well-established, their involvement in psychiatric disorders has garnered increasing attention in recent years. Methods: We conducted a cross-sectional analysis of 1003 patients diagnosed with severe mental illnesses. Vitamin D, B9, and B12 serum levels were measured, and deficiencies were defined using established clinical cutoffs. Multivariate regression analyses were performed to identify associations between vitamin deficiencies and clinical outcomes. Results: Our findings revealed that vitamin deficiencies were prevalent across all diagnostic groups, with particularly high rates in patients with schizophrenia and major depressive disorder. Vitamin D deficiency was significantly associated with worse psychiatric outcomes, including increased depressive symptoms (adjusted OR = 1.89, p = 0.018), lower Global Assessment of Functioning scores (adjusted OR = −0.18, p < 0.001), and higher rates of metabolic syndrome (adjusted OR = 1.97, p = 0.007). Folate and B12 deficiencies were also linked to greater psychiatric symptom severity and metabolic disturbances, including increased risks of obesity and dyslipidemia. Conclusions: Our study highlights the critical role of vitamins deficiencies in both psychiatric and metabolic health of patients with severe mental illnesses. These findings underscore the importance of routine screening and correction of these deficiencies as part of comprehensive care in psychiatric populations. The integration of nutritional interventions may offer a novel and holistic approach to improving both mental and physical health outcomes.
Keywords:
vitamin D deficiency; folate; vitamin B12; schizophrenia; depression; bipolar disorder; psychiatric symptoms; metabolic syndrome; nutritional psychiatry
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One should also watch out for medication side effects, like the increased risk of hyponatremia with some antidepressants.
I guess they probably measured people while they were on medication. Psychiatric medication depletes several nutrients like the ones mentioned. So the question is if it’s actually the medication that make the illness more severe by creating nutritional imbalance, or if people diagnosed actually had a deficiency before they got medicated. In the latter case, psychiatric meds would still make the deficiency worse.