Hanley and colleagues have written an excellent article. 1 Further, vitamin D and receptors have been increasingly implicated in the pathology of cognition and mental illness. Vitamin D activates receptors on neurons in regions implicated in the regulation of behaviour, stimulates neurotrophin release and protects the brain by buffering antioxidant and anti-inflammatory defences against vascular injury. 2 There is growing evidence for a relationship between vitamin D receptors in the brain, hypovitaminosis D and abnormal executive cognitive functions, 3,4 major depression, 5 bipolar disorder 6 and schizophrenia. 7
Further studies are needed to investigate the impact of vitamin D supplementation on cognition, mood disorders and schizophrenia. Given current evidence, ensuring normal vitamin D levels may be critical for prevention and treatment in people at high risk of mental and cognitive illness and for treatment in those for whom mental illness has already been diagnosed.
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