Low levels of vitamin D doubles schizophrenia risk in kids
POSTED September 8, 2010 - 12:15 | POSTED BY Jyoti Pal
Last edited by Silky Chandvani on September 8, 2010 - 12:27
Schizophrenia, a brain disorder, affects almost 200,000 Australians. The condition, usually present in young adults, is characterized by symptoms like hearing voices and delusions.
The study
For the purpose of the study, researchers at the Queensland University Brain Institute assessed blood samples of newborn babies born in Denmark. The samples were taken as part of routine screening for infants.
The samples were tested for vitamin D levels.
The researchers then compared Vitamin D levels in babies who later developed schizophrenia with healthy counterparts.
Infants with low Vitamin D levels ran double the risk of developing the disorder, researchers found.
"For the babies who had very low vitamin D, their risk was about twice as high as those babies who had optimal vitamin D," study’s principal investigator, John McGrath, Professor at the Queensland Brain Institute said.
"But the amazing thing was that the study that was based in Denmark, where low vitamin D is quite common, we found that if vitamin D is linked to schizophrenia our statistics suggest that it could explain about 40 percent of all schizophrenias," McGrath averred.
Hitherto studies established that infants born in winters were more likely to develop schizophrenia.
"And if you're born in winter and spring you tend to have a slightly increased risk of schizophrenia also, and that was one of the original pieces of the jigsaw puzzle that led us to wonder maybe vitamin D could be implicated," McGrath pointed.
Will adequate exposure to sunlight help?
While the researchers confirm the link between sunlight, vitamin D, and children's brain development, they aren’t still sure if adequate exposure to sunlight may do the trick.
"So the real acid test is going to be trying to lift vitamin D levels in pregnant women and newborns and see whether there's an effect on later schizophrenia," Professor Ian Hickie from the Brain and Mind Research Institute in Sydney said.
"Or even in fact, looking at providing higher levels of vitamin D by vitamin D supplementation in other ways later in life and particularly childhood and the teenage years, to see whether you might reduce the risk of onset of schizophrenia," says Hickie.
Findings of the study feature in the journal 'Archives of General Psychiatry.'
