Efficacy of vitamin D supplementation in major depression: A meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials.

What It Covers

This meta-analysis looks at Vitamin D, K2, Magnesium and Zinc.

The researchers aimed to assess the effect of vitamin D supplementation on depression symptom scores among individuals with clinically diagnosed major depression.

Effect sizes for the trials were computed using standardized mean difference (Cohen's d), and I2 test was used to assess sample heterogeneity.

Why It Was Studied

There is a need to develop and periodically evaluate new treatment strategies in major depression due to the high burden of nonresponse and inadequate response to antidepressants.

Who the Included Studies Covered

Critical appraisal of studies was done using the Cochrane risk of bias assessment tool.

How the Review Was Done

Electronic search of databases was carried out for published randomized controlled trials in English language, peer-reviewed journals from inception till August 2017.

Outcome measure used for effect size calculation was depression symptom scores.

Pooled mean effect sizes were derived using both fixed and random-effects model.

What Was Measured

There is a need to develop and periodically evaluate new treatment strategies in major depression due to the high burden of nonresponse and inadequate response to antidepressants.

Topics PubMed links to this paper include Major Depressive Disorder, Dietary Supplements, Randomized Controlled Trials as Topic, Vitamin D, Vitamin D Deficiency and Vitamins.

Author keywords: meta-analysis.

What This Means in Plain Language

This is a meta-analysis of Vitamin D, K2, Magnesium and Zinc.

Results are reported in around 7 sentences of the abstract; we leave them to the paper itself rather than summarise them.

The publication is from 2020 (Journal of postgraduate medicine), a journal based in India.

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