Vitamin D Blog: D Has No Effect on Depression

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Published: Mar 20, 2014

Depressed patients won't get any relief from vitamin D supplementation, a new meta-analysis found.

In a review of seven trials totaling nearly 3,200 patients, the vitamin had no significant effect on depressive symptoms overall, Jonathan Shaffer, PhD, of Columbia University Medical Center, in New York City, and colleagues reported in Psychosomatic Medicine.

However, when looking specifically at patients who had clinically significant depressive symptoms or depressive disorder, the researchers found that there did appear to be a moderately significant effect of vitamin D supplementation on symptoms.

In a press release, the researchers noted that further work should be done on whether vitamin D adds to improvements when patients are also on antidepressants.

They also noted that supplementation may work when depressed patients have an actual deficiency in vitamin D, but more studies are needed.

Have a tip on a vitamin D study? Email Kristina Fiore at k.fiore@medpagetoday.com. You can also catch our vitamin D feed on Twitter, @vitaminDblog.

Other coverage from the Vitamin D Blog:

D's Role in Weight Loss

Iatrogenic Overdose

Inflammatory Markers

Cutting Edema in Athletes' Bones

Kristina Fiore joined MedPage Today after earning a degree in science, health, and environmental reporting from NYU. She's had bylines in newspapers and trade and consumer magazines including Newsday, ABC News, New Jersey Monthly, and Earth Magazine. At MedPage Today, she reports with a focus on diabetes, nutrition, and addiction medicine.

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Migraines Tied to Raised Risk of Depression, Suicidal Thoughts

FRIDAY, Oct. 25 (HealthDay News) -- People who suffer from migraines are twice as likely to be depressed as others without the debilitating headaches, according to a new study.

And those who experience migraines, particularly people younger than 30, are also more likely to consider suicide, the Canadian researchers said.

Routine screenings and interventions are needed for those migraine sufferers at greatest risk for both depression and suicidal thoughts, the study authors contend.

"We are not sure why younger migraineurs have such a high likelihood of depression and suicidal ideation," study co-author Meghan Schrumm, a former graduate student at the University of Toronto, said in a university news release.

"It may be that younger people with migraines have not yet managed to find adequate treatment or develop coping mechanisms to minimize pain and the impact of this chronic illness on the rest of their lives," Schrumm suggested.

The study, published online recently in the journal Depression Research and Treatment, involved more than 6,000 Canadians who said they had been diagnosed with migraines. The researchers compared them to a much larger group who did not report having migraines.

As in previous studies, migraines were much more common among women, with one in every seven women reporting having migraines, compared with one in every 16 men.

Of study participants, more than 8 percent of men and 12 percent of women who experienced migraines also suffered from depression, compared to just above 3 percent of men and about 6 percent of women who did not have migraines.

Younger people with migraines were much more likely than older patients to develop symptoms of depression. Women younger than 30 who suffered from migraines had six times the odds of being depressed than adults aged 65 and older. Migraine sufferers who were single or had trouble with daily activities were also at increased risk for depression.

Men and women with migraines were also much more likely than those without the headaches to have seriously considered committing suicide. Although nearly 16 percent of men and 18 percent of women with migraines said they thought about taking their own life, about 8 percent of men and 9 percent of women who didn't have migraines said the same.

Although the study found associations between having migraines, depression and suicidal thoughts, it did not establish a cause-and-effect relationship.

Based on the findings, study lead author Esme Fuller-Thomson, chair of the University of Toronto's Factor-Inwentash Faculty of Social Work, concluded there is a need for routine screening and interventions for depression and suicidal thoughts among young and unmarried people who suffer from migraines as well as those who are limited in their daily activities.

-- Mary Elizabeth Dallas
Copyright © 2013 HealthDay. All rights reserved. SOURCE: University of Toronto, news release, Oct. 17, 2013

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Depression May Sometimes Foreshadow Parkinson's Diagnosis

By Denise Mann
HealthDay Reporter

WEDNESDAY, Oct. 2 (HealthDay News) -- Depressed people -- particularly those 65 or older or with hard-to-treat depression -- are more than three times as likely to develop Parkinson's disease as their peers without depression, a new study indicates.

The new findings don't imply that depression causes Parkinson's disease. Instead, they suggest that depression may precede Parkinson's in some cases, said study author Dr. Albert Yang, an attending psychiatrist at Taipei Veterans General Hospital, in Taiwan.

The researchers looked at information from a national Taiwan health insurance database. During a decade of follow-up, 1.43 percent of about 4,600 people with depression were diagnosed with Parkinson's disease. By contrast, only 0.52 percent of more than 18,500 people with no history of depression were diagnosed with Parkinson's.

After accounting for age and sex, people with depression were 3.24 times more likely to develop Parkinson's disease, according to the study published in the Oct. 2 online issue of Neurology.

"Depression is an important risk for Parkinson's disease, but mainly for [the] elderly and those with long-term and difficult-to-treat depression," said Yang, who is also a visiting assistant professor at Harvard Medical School. "Our study does not implicate all depressions are risky for Parkinson's disease."

Nearly 1 million people in the United States have Parkinson's disease, a chronic and progressive movement disorder. Motor symptoms may include tremor, rigidity and trouble walking.

In the study, difficult-to-treat depression was defined as two or more treatment changes during the first two years after a depression diagnosis.

Depressed seniors were slightly more likely to be diagnosed with Parkinson's disease than their younger counterparts with depression, and those with hard-to-treat depression were more than twice as likely to be diagnosed with Parkinson's disease as those whose depression was easier to treat.

Depression and Parkinson's disease are known to travel together. Up to 60 percent of people with Parkinson's will show some symptoms of depression, according to the Parkinson's Disease Foundation.

"Depression can come after a Parkinson's diagnosis and is highly prevalent in Parkinson's disease patients, but it can also come on years before the actual onset, thus it's difficult to say whether depression causes Parkinson's or Parkinson's causes depression," Yang said.

One theory is that, as with the loss of a sense of smell, depression may be an early symptom of Parkinson's disease. The researchers attempted to control for this possibility by excluding all people who were diagnosed with Parkinson's disease within two to five years of a depression diagnosis. Even so, Parkinson's risk remained elevated, which suggests that depression is a risk factor for the development of Parkinson's, not a symptom.

More study is needed to understand the connection, Yang said. "Screening for Parkinson's disease would only be reasonable among elderly individuals and those with difficult-to-treat depression," he added.

The new study had some limitations. The researchers did not have any information on family history of Parkinson's disease, smoking, coffee drinking and environmental factors such as exposure to pesticides -- all factors that have been linked to the development of Parkinson's disease.

Outside experts said that the findings add a new dimension to the link between depression and Parkinson's disease, but point out that more study is needed before any conclusions can be drawn.

"Overall, a very small number of people with depression will go on to develop Parkinson's disease. It's an important link, but it is not a given," said James Beck, vice president of scientific affairs at the Parkinson's' Disease Foundation.

Dr. Roy Alcalay, an advisor for the Parkinson's Disease Foundation, said, "It is too early to say that hard-to-treat depression should be a red flag for Parkinson's disease, but it is something to think about when we see people with this type of depression who have Parkinson's disease in their family."

"We know that depression and Parkinson's disease are associated, and if depression is a risk factor for Parkinson's, it is possible that treating it could postpone the onset of the disease," added Alcalay, an assistant professor of neurology at Columbia University Medical Center, in New York City.

In any event, it's important that depression be treated: "Depression is bad for the brain, and so is Parkinson's," Alcalay said.

Dr. David Straker, an adjunct assistant clinical professor of psychiatry at Columbia University Medical Center, agreed that depression should be treated promptly and aggressively. But "we always want to rule out other neurologic diseases when a person has symptoms of depression," he added.

Both depression and Parkinson's disease involve some of the same brain chemicals, notably dopamine, Straker said. He added that certain medications used to treat depression can also cause symptoms of Parkinson's disease. However, antidepressants did not appear to increase risk for Parkinson's in the new study.

More information

Learn more about the causes of Parkinson's disease at the Parkinson's Disease Foundation.

Copyright © 2013 HealthDay. All rights reserved. SOURCES: Albert Yang, M.D., Ph.D., attending psychiatrist, Taipei Veterans General Hospital, Taiwan, and visiting assistant professor, Harvard Medical School, Boston; David Straker, D.O., adjunct assistant clinical professor, psychiatry, Columbia University Medical Center, New York City; Roy Alcalay, M.D., assistant professor, neurology, Columbia University Medical Center, New York City; James Beck, Ph.D., vice president, scientific affairs, Parkinson's Disease Foundation, New York City; Oct. 2, 2013, Neurology, online

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