Investıgation of vitamin D levels in obsessive-compulsive disorder

Abstract

Background: The impact of vitamin D on obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) remains unknown.

Aim: Studies suggest that vitamin D deficiency may be associated with neuropsychiatric diseases. The purpose of this study is to investigate vitamin D levels in those diagnosed with OCD. In addition, the relation between OCD symptom severity and serum vitamin D level is investigated.

Methods: About 174 patients newly diagnosed with OCD and 170 healthy volunteers were included in the study. Yale-Brown Obsessive Compulsive Scale (YBOCS) was used to assess the severity of OCD symptoms. Serum vitamin D levels of the two groups were compared.

Results: The serum vitamin D levels of the OCD group were found to be significantly lower than the control group. Serum vitamin D levels were negatively correlated with the obsession, compulsion, and total scale scores measured in YBOCS but there was no correlation between the serum vitamin D levels and illness duration of OCD patients.

Conclusions: To the best of our knowledge, this is one of the first studies to investigate vitamin D levels in newly diagnosed adult OCD patients without comorbidities. Although our findings suggest that vitamin D may play a role in the pathophysiology of OCD, further studies are needed to support our findings.

Keywords: Biomarkers; central nervous system; obsessive-compulsive disorder; vitamin D.