Improvement of Depressive Symptoms upon Correction of Vitamin D Deficiency in Women with Chronic Liver Disease

Introduction: Patients with chronic liver diseases (CLD) frequently suffer from both vitamin D deficiency and depression. A recent meta-analysis reported an inverse correlation between depression and vitamin D levels. Indeed, vitamin D receptor (VDR) is present and genomic and nongenomic VDR-mediated signalling has been identified in brain. As depression is known to occur more frequently in women than in men, this intervention study investigates the differential effects of vitamin D substitution on depressive symptoms in patients with CLD and depression. Methods: Vitamin D insufficiency (as defined by serum conc…