Title:Vitamin D: A Pleiotropic Hormone with Possible Psychotropic Activities
Volume: 28
Issue: 19
Author(s): Donatella Marazziti*, Elisabetta Parra, Stefania Palermo, Filippo Maria Barberi, Beatrice Buccianelli, Sara Ricciardulli, Andrea Cappelli, Federico Mucci and Liliana Dell’Osso
Affiliation:
- Department of Clinical and Experimental Medicine, Section of Psychiatry, University of Pisa,Italy
Keywords:
Vitamin D, biochemistry, physiology, immune system, central nervous system, neuro-inflammation,
mood disorders, obsessive-compulsive disorders, spectrum disorders, autism.
Abstract:
Background: After the recognition of the efficacy of cod–liver oil in rickets at
the end of the eighteenth century, and the isolation and synthesis of the liposoluble vitamin
D in 1931, its mode of actions and functions were deeply explored. Biochemical
studies permitted to identify five forms of vitamin D, called D1, D2, D3, D4 and D5, differing
in ultrastructural conformation and origin, with vitamin D2 (ergocalciferol) and
D3 (cholecalciferol) representing the active forms. In the last decades especially, a constantly
increasing bulk of data highlighted how vitamin D could regulate several activities
and processes.
Aims: The aim of the present paper was to review and comment on the literature on vitamin
D, with a focus on its possible role in the pathophysiology of neuropsychiatric disorders.
Discussion: Available literature indicates that vitamin D regulates a variety of processes
in humans and in the central nervous system. Vitamin D deficiency is associated with an
enhanced pro-inflammatory state, and formation of Aβ oligomers that might contribute to
the cognitive decline typical of the elderly age and, perhaps, dementia. More in general,
vitamin D is supposed to play a crucial role in neuroinflammation processes that are currently
hypothesized to be involved in the pathophysiology of different psychiatric disorders,
such as major depression, bipolar disorders, obsessive-compulsive disorders and
psychosis.
Conclusion: It is conceivable that vitamin D supplementation might pave the way towards
“natural” treatments of a broad range of neuropsychiatric disorders, or at least be
useful to boost response to psychotropic drugs in resistant cases.
