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Nutrients
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Vitamin D and Psychological Health—The Sunshine Vitamin and Wellbeing
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Vitamin D and Psychological Health—The Sunshine Vitamin and Wellbeing

A special issue of Nutrients (ISSN 2072-6643).

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (15 March 2016) | Viewed by 40980

Special Issue Editors

Dr. Talitha Best

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Nutritional Physiology Research Centre, Sansom Institute for Health Research, University of South Australia, Adelaide, Australia
Dr. Simon Spedding

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Alliance for Research in Exercise, Nutrition and Activity (ARENA), Sansom Institute for Health Research, University of South Australia, Adelaide, SA 5000, Australia
Interests: applied epidemiology; clinical medicine focusing on nutrition exercise and sport; complementary medicine focusing on vitamin D
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Maintaining psychological health is a key determinant of productivity, reported happiness and resilience to life’s challenges. At present, there is increasing global prevalence of depression and other psychological and neurological conditions, such as dementia, that impact on the quality of life experienced by many in the community.

Emerging evidence demonstrates an important role for vitamin D deficiency in the development and trajectory of diseases, such as cancer, diabetes and vascular disease, as well as mood disorder and cognitive impairment. Whilst the association between deficiency and forms of depression has long been recognised, there is a need to consider the occurrence of deficiency and the effect of supplementation across a range of mental health conditionss including anxiety, schizophrenia, PTSD, fibromyalgia, and chronic pain syndromes.

In addition, it is important to consider the complexities of Vitamin D absorption, serum levels, genetics and metabolic requirements of tissues throughout the body and brain associated with psychological well-being and disorder. This theme can be explored through studies of deficiency and supplementation, epidemiological research and intervention studies, as well as literature and systematic reviews.

With the increasing recognition of the vitamin D deficiency pandemic, this Special Issue seeks to draw together evidence about vitamin D and psychological health by exploring symptoms, overall mood, well-being and quality of life, together with cognitive performance.

The editors recognise that ‘much research appears to be performed in a clinical and methodological vacuum’ (Ioannidis 2006). This Special Issue will endeavour to gather papers without methodological or biological flaws that highlight the clinical relevance of their findings rather than focus on ‘curiosity-driven research with scientific merit as the sole metric’ (O’Keefe 2011).

The editors plan to offer a prize to an Early Career Researcher of a waiver of the publication fee for the best paper and a 50% reduction in the fees for the next four best papers. If you would like to be considered, please include your reasoning in the Cover Letter.

Dr. Simon Spedding
Dr. Talitha Best
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Nutrients is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2900 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • Vitamin D
  • Calcitriol, Cholecalciferol, Ergocalciferol
  • 25(OH)D, 1.25(OH)D, VDR
  • Vitamin D deficiency
  • Mechanisms of action of vitamin D
  • Vitamin D supplementation, fortification or augmentation
  • Biological flaws
  • Psychological health
  • Quality of life
  • Schizophrenia Spectrum Disorders
  • Bipolar Disorders
  • Depressive Disorders
  • Anxiety Disorders
  • Obsessive-Compulsive Disorders
  • Trauma-Related Disorders
  • Substance-related Disorders
  • Neurocognitive Disorders
  • Chronic pain
  • Fibromyalgia

Published Papers (4 papers)

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Research

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224 KiB  
Article
Vitamin D Status and Quality of Life in Healthy Male High-Tech Employees
by Sigal Tepper, Yael Dabush, Danit R. Shahar, Ronit Endevelt, Diklah Geva and Sofia Ish-Shalom
Nutrients 2016, 8(6), 366; https://doi.org/10.3390/nu8060366 - 15 Jun 2016
Cited by 12 | Viewed by 5308
Abstract
While low vitamin D status has been shown to be associated with decreased quality of life in unhealthy populations and women, only limited data are available regarding healthy adult men. Our aim was to evaluate the associations between health-related quality of life (QoL) [...] Read more.
While low vitamin D status has been shown to be associated with decreased quality of life in unhealthy populations and women, only limited data are available regarding healthy adult men. Our aim was to evaluate the associations between health-related quality of life (QoL) and vitamin D status in adult men. High-tech employees aged 25–65 year were recruited from an occupational periodic examination clinic at Rambam Health Campus. QoL was assessed using the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Health-related quality of life questionnaire (HRQOL-4). Serum 25-hydroxyvitamin D (25(OH)D) and Body Mass Index (BMI) were measured; further information was collected about physical activity, education, sun exposure, sick-days, and musculoskeletal pain severity (visual analog scale). Three hundred and fifty-eight men were enrolled in the study; mean serum 25(OH)D level was 22.1 ± 7.9 ng/mL (range 4.6–54.5 ng/mL). In a multivariate logistic regression model, 25(OH)D was a significant independent determinant of self-rated health; Odds Ratio (OR) for self-rated health was 0.91 (95% confidence interval (CI) 0.85–0.97, p = 0.004), adjusted for age, BMI, pain severity, physical activity, and sun exposure. Every 1 ng/mL increase of 25(OH)D was associated with 9% reduction in the odds of reporting self-rated health as fair or poor. Poisson regression model demonstrated an association between physically unhealthy days and 25(OH)D levels (rate ratio 0.95, p < 0.001). In conclusion, serum levels of 25(OH)D were associated with self-rated health and with physically unhealthy days of HRQOL in healthy high-tech male workers. Future intervention studies are required to test the impact of vitamin D supplementation on QoL. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Vitamin D and Psychological Health—The Sunshine Vitamin and Wellbeing)
575 KiB  
Article
Vitamin D and Sunlight Exposure in Newly-Diagnosed Parkinson’s Disease
by Juan Wang, Deyu Yang, Yu Yu, Gaohai Shao and Qunbo Wang
Nutrients 2016, 8(3), 142; https://doi.org/10.3390/nu8030142 - 04 Mar 2016
Cited by 34 | Viewed by 6344
Abstract
Circulating vitamin D has previously been found to be lower in patients with Parkinson’s disease (PD), while the effects of sunlight exposure have not yet been fully investigated. Therefore, we evaluated the associations between serum vitamin D, vitamin D intake, sunlight exposure, and [...] Read more.
Circulating vitamin D has previously been found to be lower in patients with Parkinson’s disease (PD), while the effects of sunlight exposure have not yet been fully investigated. Therefore, we evaluated the associations between serum vitamin D, vitamin D intake, sunlight exposure, and newly-diagnosed PD patients in a Chinese population. This case-control study measured serum 25-hydroxyvitamin D (25(OH)D) levels and sunlight exposure in 201 patients with newly-diagnosed PD and 199 controls without neurodegenerative diseases. Data on vitamin D intake and sunlight exposure were obtained using a self-report questionnaire. Multivariable logistic regressions were employed to evaluate the associations between serum 25(OH)D levels, sunlight exposure, and PD. Adjustments were made for sex, age, smoking, alcohol use, education, BMI, and vitamin D intake. There were significantly lower levels of serum 25(OH)D (20.6 ± 6.5 ng/mL), daily vitamin D intake (8.3 ± 3.7 g/day), and sunlight exposure (9.7 ± 4.1 h/week) in patients with PD compared to healthy controls (p < 0.05). Crude odds ratios (ORs) for PD in the quartiles of serum 25(OH)D were 1 (reference), 0.710 (0.401, 1.257), 0.631 (0.348, 1.209), and 0.483 (0.267, 0.874), respectively. Crude ORs for PD in quartiles of sunlight exposure were 1 (reference), 0.809 (0.454, 1.443), 0.623 (0.345, 1.124) and 0.533 (0.294, 0.966), respectively. A significant positive correlation between serum 25(OH)D and sunlight exposure was found, but serum 25(OH)D was not correlated with daily vitamin D intake. This study indicates that lower levels of serum 25(OH)D and sunlight exposure are significantly associated with an increased risk for PD. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Vitamin D and Psychological Health—The Sunshine Vitamin and Wellbeing)
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Review

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384 KiB  
Review
Vitamin D in Fibromyalgia: A Causative or Confounding Biological Interplay?
by Spyridon Karras, Eleni Rapti, Stauros Matsoukas and Kalliopi Kotsa
Nutrients 2016, 8(6), 343; https://doi.org/10.3390/nu8060343 - 04 Jun 2016
Cited by 45 | Viewed by 9553
Abstract
Fibromyalgia (FM) is a chronic syndrome with an increasing prevalence, characterized by widespread musculoskeletal pain in combination with a variety of cognitive symptoms and fatigue. A plethora of scientific evidence that has accumulated during the last decades, resulted in a significant improvement of [...] Read more.
Fibromyalgia (FM) is a chronic syndrome with an increasing prevalence, characterized by widespread musculoskeletal pain in combination with a variety of cognitive symptoms and fatigue. A plethora of scientific evidence that has accumulated during the last decades, resulted in a significant improvement of the understanding of the pathophysiology of the disease. However, current therapeutic approaches in patients with FM remains a multidimensional approach including patient education, behavioral therapy, exercise, pain management, and relief of chronic symptoms, rather than the use drug therapies, based on the mechanisms of disease development. Vitamin D, a fat-soluble vitamin derived mainly from skin synthesis through ultraviolet radiation, has been recognized to manifest a plethora of extraskeletal actions, apart from its fundamental role in skeletal and calcium homeostasis, including modulation of cell growth, neuromuscular actions, and potential anti-inflammatory properties. Recent findings indicate that hypovitaminosis D to be highly prevalent in patients with FM. Supplementation studies are limited so far, indicating potential beneficial effects on pain and severity of the disease, however specific recommendations are lacking. This review aims to summarize and critically appraise data regarding the pathophysiological interplay between vitamin D and FM, available results from observational and supplementation studies so far, with a clinical discourse on current knowledge gaps and future research agenda. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Vitamin D and Psychological Health—The Sunshine Vitamin and Wellbeing)
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371 KiB  
Review
Vitamin D and Autism Spectrum Disorder: A Literature Review
by Hajar Mazahery, Carlos A. Camargo, Cathryn Conlon, Kathryn L. Beck, Marlena C. Kruger and Pamela R. Von Hurst
Nutrients 2016, 8(4), 236; https://doi.org/10.3390/nu8040236 - 21 Apr 2016
Cited by 80 | Viewed by 19204
Abstract
Low vitamin D status in early development has been hypothesised as an environmental risk factor for Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD), given the concurrent increase in the prevalence of these two conditions, and the association of vitamin D with many ASD-associated medical conditions. Identification [...] Read more.
Low vitamin D status in early development has been hypothesised as an environmental risk factor for Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD), given the concurrent increase in the prevalence of these two conditions, and the association of vitamin D with many ASD-associated medical conditions. Identification of vitamin D-ASD factors may provide indications for primary and secondary prevention interventions. We systematically reviewed the literature for studies on vitamin D-ASD relationship, including potential mechanistic pathways. We identified seven specific areas, including: latitude, season of conception/birth, maternal migration/ethnicity, vitamin D status of mothers and ASD patients, and vitamin D intervention to prevent and treat ASD. Due to differences in the methodological procedures and inconsistent results, drawing conclusions from the first three areas is difficult. Using a more direct measure of vitamin D status—that is, serum 25(OH)D level during pregnancy or childhood—we found growing evidence for a relationship between vitamin D and ASD. These findings are supported by convincing evidence from experimental studies investigating the mechanistic pathways. However, with few primary and secondary prevention intervention trials, this relationship cannot be determined, unless randomised placebo-controlled trials of vitamin D as a preventive or disease-modifying measure in ASD patients are available. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Vitamin D and Psychological Health—The Sunshine Vitamin and Wellbeing)
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