Babies born with vitamin D deficiency at higher risk of mental disorders, new study finds
Newborns who are deficient in vitamin D have a higher chance of developing mental disorders, such as autism, schizophrenia and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder(ADHD), researchers have found.
In the largest study of its kind, they tested the vitamin D status of more than 70,000 people as babies, using dried blood spots kept on filter paper from their heel prick tests in the first few days of life.
University of Queensland (UQ) psychiatric researcher John McGrath led the painstaking study, which analysed vitamin D levels from a sample of people born between 1981 and 2005 in Denmark, where the filter paper from the tests is kept.
They compared vitamin D data from a random selection of the Danish population without mental disorders to people with autism, schizophrenia, ADHD, major depression, bipolar disorder and anorexia nervosa.
"We found that low vitamin D was linked to an increased risk of schizophrenia, autism and ADHD," Professor McGrath said.
"We don't think that vitamin D during adulthood has anything to do with these disorders. We're talking about low vitamin D during early brain development.
Professor McGrath, of UQ's Queensland Brain Institute, said the new evidence suggested optimal vitamin D during early life is "not only important to build strong bones, but also to build healthy brains".
He described "very low" vitamin D as being less than 25 nanomoles per litre of blood.
While the study adds to previous research suggesting low maternal vitamin D involvement in schizophrenia, autism and ADHD, he stressed that mental health disorders are multi-factorial, with a wide range of genetics and environmental factors also playing a key role.
"We know that many other factors can impact on orderly brain development, such as prenatal infection," Professor McGrath said.
"Obstetric complications and childhood trauma may also be linked to later mental disorders."
In schizophrenia, smoking cannabis in adolescence is considered a trigger in susceptible people.
Professor McGrath has spent the past three decades trying to identify risk factors, such as low vitamin D, that can be modified in the hope that it will decrease the incidence of the disorders.
The findings from the latest study suggest that if vitamin D is a true causal factor, 15 per cent of schizophrenia cases, 9 per cent of ADHD, and 5 per cent of autism could have been prevented if all participants had vitamin D levels of more than 21 nanomoles per litre of blood as a newborn.
But Professor McGrath said those estimates were based on people living in Denmark, not in Australia, where individuals are less likely to be vitamin D deficient.
Vitamin D is often referred to as "the sunshine vitamin" because the sun is one of the best sources. It is also found in some foods and can be taken as a supplement.
In Australia, vitamin D supplementation in margarine is mandatory.
Speaking on behalf of the Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists (RANZCOG), Amanda Henry said families should not be "either unduly alarmed or overly hopeful" about the study findings.
"We're definitely not talking here that this explains everything about these conditions," she said.
Professor Henry, who was not involved in the research, said RANZCOG guidelines already recommended that women take vitamin D as part of pregnancy supplementation.
But she said routine vitamin D screening was not recommended.
The program head for women's health at The George Institute for Global Health said the federal government was funding a review of Australia's pregnancy care guidelines led by RANZCOG and the Australian College of Midwives.
"Vitamin D is one of the topics that's currently under development to be actively updated," Professor Henry said.
"We're waiting on the latest research on that to be integrated, then we will have updated guidance for mums and families around Australia in terms of what to do with vitamin D and many other things in pregnancy.
Professor McGrath's work is funded by the Danish National Research Foundation, the Queensland Centre for Mental Health Research and the UQ.
The vitamin D study is published in The Lancet Psychiatry.
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Reason for population decline 'It's not due to any human activity, sure there might be a little bit of poaching going on, but not to any great extent, I don't think,' he said. ' The decline in numbers are due to the food. There's very little available prey on the island.' Professor Fry said the snakes' main pray is migrating birds and there's a shortage of them. 'Habitat destruction is certainly impacting bird numbers, but the biggest part is the bird movement patterns have changed. 'There's been so much deforestation along the Atlantic coast of Brazil in the Sao Paulo, Santos area.' He explained this becomes a domino affect impacting an entire food web. 'If you take out the trees, you take out the clouds, which means you take out the rain and insect blooms.' He said this impacts the little birds for feeding on the insects, which means you're ultimately going to take out the snakes that are feeding on the birds. 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Its medical, social, and economic importance cannot be overstated.' Professor Fry said there's a couple of institutions in Brazil that have collections, but they're small collections. 'They'll preserve the snake as a species, but it won't preserve the biodiversity of the snake, and it certainly won't preserve the snake in the wild itself. 'If the birds die out, the snakes are going to die out and no amount of captive bleedings successes will make that island amenable to snakes without food.' According to the BBC Science Focus, the snakes were trapped on the island around 11,000 years ago, at the end of the last ice age, when rising sea levels cut them off from the mainland. And the isolation of the island, combined with its unique environment, has led to the evolution of the snake species that you can't find anywhere else on the planet. But as Professor Fry explained, limited food supply is affecting the snakes. The International Union for Conservation of Threatened Species has the golden lancehead viper listed as critically endangered, meaning it faces an extremely high risk of extinction. The Aussie scientist is hoping to get back to the island in the next two years. 'You need a series of special permits beyond just normal wildlife ones,' he said. 'The island is under the control of the navy, so you need military permits as well – that's why with people I've been collaborating with in Brazil, as it's much easier for local scientists to get the permits.'
