A randomized controlled trial of vitamin D supplementation on perinatal depression: in Iranian pregnant mothers.

What Was Tested

The paper reports a study of Vitamin D, K2, Magnesium and Zinc, published as a randomized controlled trial.

The Edinburgh Postnatal Depression scale was used to evaluate depression scores.

Why It Was Studied

Mood disorders in pregnancy and post-partum period are common and considered as a public health issue.

This study evaluated the effect of vitamin D3 supplementation on perinatal depression scores.

Who Took Part

The study group was 169 participants.

PubMed indexes the participants as young adults and adults, women only.

This randomized clinical trial was done in pregnant women who were under prenatal care in a teaching hospital in Shiraz, Iran.

The inclusion criteria were: being 18 years or older, no history of mental illness and internal diseases, a singleton live fetus, without any pregnancy complications, gestational age of 26-28 weeks upon enrollment, and depression score of 0 to 13.

How the Study Was Run

The design is described as randomized and placebo-controlled.

Random assignment meant chance, not the researchers, decided who got Vitamin D, K2, Magnesium and Zinc and who got the comparison, which limits bias.

A placebo (an inactive look-alike) gave the Vitamin D, K2, Magnesium and Zinc group a baseline to be compared against.

A total of 169 participants were assigned to the two groups of placebo and vitamin D through block randomization design.

Maternal serum 25-hydroxyvitamin D concentrations were measured at baseline and childbirth.

Besides, depression scores were evaluated four times: at 26-28 and 38-40 weeks of gestation, and finally at 4 and 8 weeks after birth.

What Was Measured

This study evaluated the effect of vitamin D3 supplementation on perinatal depression scores.

The subject headings attached to it are Cholecalciferol, Depression, Dietary Supplements, Gestational Age, Iran, Pregnancy Complications and Pregnancy Trimesters.

The authors tagged it with the keywords Ante and postnatal depression, Maternal depression, Supplementation and Vitamin D.

What This Means in Plain Language

The paper is a randomized and placebo-controlled study of Vitamin D, K2, Magnesium and Zinc in 169 participants.

Its findings take up roughly 7 sentences of the abstract and are left out here on purpose; the source paper is the place to read them.

The publication is from 2016 (BMC pregnancy and childbirth), a journal based in England.

More context: the Vitamin D, K2, Magnesium and Zinc compound page, all human trials.