A clinical study indicates that anxiety and depression occur more frequently in Fibromyalgia patients with vitamin D deficiency. Many studies have found that low levels of vitamin D are common in FM patients, and others indicate a higher incidence of anxiety and depression in FM patients than in the general population. This study points to a relationship between the two, though the cause and direction of the relationship “remains unclear.”
Rheumatologists at the Musgrave Park Hospital in Belfast, Northern Ireland, measured the vitamin D levels in the blood serum of 75 Caucasian FM patients, who also completed the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Score (HADS) questionnaire.
Fully 13 percent of the patients were found to be vitamin D
deficient (less than 25 nmol/l), while 31 percent had normal vitamin D levels (50 nmol/l or greater). Another 56 percent of the patients had
insufficient vitamin D levels that fell below normal but not in the deficiency range.
The average HADS measure of anxiety and depression was significantly higher for the deficient D group than for the other patients. All subjects also completed the Fibromyalgia Impact Questionnaire, a global measure of global FM quality of life. No relationship was indicated between this measure and vitamin D level.
The study report, “Vitamin D Deficiency is Associated with Anxiety and Depression in Fibromyalgia,” was published in the July 19, 2006 issue of
Clinical Rheumatology (
www.springerlink.com/link.asp?id=102818).
