
Prevalence of vitamin D deficiency in adults admitted to psychiatric hospital - DanBC
https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/bjpsych-bulletin/article/prevalence-of-vitamin-d-deficiency-in-adult-patients-admitted-to-a-psychiatric-hospital/5BE0942DB69C2F9BAB7083C08D2319C8#
======
oliwarner
HN health posts tend to get posted without context and you'll get a pile of
people [inadvertantly, I'm sure] pushing their supplement regime as a way to
stave off clinical depression et al.

This paper is _NOT_ saying that low VitD causes psychiatric admission, just
that patients may require supplements to bring them back to healthy levels.

You get most of your vitamin D from skin exposure to sunlight so it's
reasonable to suggest that these people with psychiatric issues and low VitD
are likely to be shut-ins.

The paper says as much... But people have a strange habit of ignoring the
paper and latching their own beliefs onto the headline.

~~~
freeflight
> HN health posts tend to get posted without context and you'll get a pile of
> people [inadvertantly, I'm sure] pushing their supplement regime as a way to
> stave off clinical depression et al.

I wouldn't say people are necessarily "pushing" their personal regimes, more
often than not people are merely exchanging their personal experiences with
certain issues.

Personally, I've had actual relief from a really annoying issue (nightly teeth
gnashing) thanks to a helpful HN comment pointing me in the direction of
Magnesium. I'm still thankful and glad that happened!

Btw: The headline is spot on with what the study found. I don't get what you
are suggesting there with "reasonable to suggest that these people with
psychiatric issues and low VitD are likely to be shut-ins".

Only 8.7% of all patients were vitamin D sufficient at admission. They didn't
get their insufficiency from being admitted, they already usually have it when
getting there.

~~~
triangleman
A "shut-in" is someone who spends a lot of time at home alone, not getting any
sunlight. Then when their symptoms of mental illness are manifested enough to
require hospital admission, they are tested for vitamin D at that point and
it's unsurprisingly low.

~~~
derefr
I guess that that is a thing that could happen in the temperate and frigid
zones of the Earth. It would be interesting, though, to attempt to replicate
the study in a tropical region, where it's nearly impossible to not get enough
sun, even indoors.

~~~
YokoZar
Glass windows block the kind of UV radiation you need to produce Vitamin D.
You really have to actually go outside to produce it.

~~~
kaybe
In some areas the windows contain enough quartz to let UV through, we found.

------
jimnotgym
As these kind of stories are so popular on HN, I recently started curating a
list at
[https://github.com/Jimnotgym/Hacking_Depression](https://github.com/Jimnotgym/Hacking_Depression)

I hope it helps someone one day.

~~~
pasabagi
I appreciate you're trying to help with this list, but as somebody who suffers
from depression, I can't really imagine anything more harmful.

If you're suffering from depression, you're likely in partial denial. Going to
a doctor represents a big change, and a big acknowledgement. Techniques like
'getting sunlight' and 'doing exercise' are infinitely more attractive - and
infinitely more likely to degrade into new ways of beating yourself up and
blaming yourself for your medical condition.

Some people can deal with depression with meditation, self-care, and better
routine. Many, however, cannot. Folk remedies are like mirages for this second
group - and they put people in a circle of denial, incomplete action, and
self-blame, where they try to solve their illness with ultimately ineffective
remedies, then blame themselves for the ineffectiveness of the treatment.

Pills, doctors, and psychiatrists are scary. As long as a depressed person
believes there's a more normal option, that's what they'll go for. So this
whole smorgsaboard of things that might help somebody somehow are really just
a bunch of chimeras that keep people living in hell.

I know this because I've done this. I went through a period of simply trying
everything anybody recommended, no matter how ridiculous. Predictably, nothing
worked. Drugs work. Therapy works. Asking a doctor what they recommend works.
Random studies you read on the internet by people who may or may not have had
the same kind of depression you have, with p-values of like, 0.1, do not work,
and do not help.

~~~
jm__87
Wouldn't acknowledging that you're suffering from depression and researching a
list of things to help be the opposite of denial? I don't doubt there are
depressed people who are in denial, but if you acknowledge your own depression
and still avoid doctors and therapy, perhaps it is more likely due to some
combination of things like shame, fatigue, apathy or hopelessness which often
come with the depression itself? The mindfulness based cognitive therapy from
my post and the CBT option recommended on another post here are both things
you do with a therapist, by the way. Also I don't see how meditation, self
care and better routine could be bad for someone suffering from depression,
even if it doesn't lift them out of it, so I would still say this is solid
advice.

Edit: I would also like to clarify that if you feel depressed you should
absolutely go to a doctor and try out therapy. If you don't want to do this,
you need to ask yourself why you wouldn't want to go to see the people who are
most qualified to help you. Is it simply because you actually don't believe a
doctor or therapist can help you or is it because you feel your case is
hopeless? In either case, I would say then that you have nothing to lose and
you might as well go try it out anyway, just in case you are wrong. If you're
right, you can have the satisfaction of feeling vindicated. If you're wrong,
you'll feel better. It's a win-win.

If the reason you don't want professional help is that you are ashamed someone
may find out, then you need to start looking at the problem a bit more
objectively. You simply have a problem that needs fixing, why not get the best
people to help you fix it? And another point, if someone else judges you for
wanting to feel better and have more to offer for everyone else around you,
should you really give their judgement much weight? If neither of these help,
maybe for right now you can just ask yourself if the shame you're predicting
you'll feel in the short run is a cheap enough price to pay to feel better in
the long run. I bet it is.

Lastly, if you're feeling like getting professional help is just too much
effort, it can help to break things up in to steps. Grab a piece of paper and
a pen and write down a plan to get help. Maybe step one of the plan is you
just jump on Google and find a doctor or therapist near you. Step 2 can be to
call and book an appointment, step 3 can be to write down exactly what you
want to discuss in your visit, step 4 can be planning how to get to the
appointment (maybe plan to ask someone close for a ride or take a taxi if
driving or walking there is too much), and so on. Each time you complete a
step, just cross it out. With each step completed, you're on your way to
feeling better and you can feel a sense of accomplishment.

~~~
pasabagi
Denial is rarely a complete thing. Most people will say they aren't 'that'
depressed right up to being put in a clinic.

People really overestimate the organizational capacity of somebody in deep
depression. Getting a doctor's appointment, showing up, then talking honestly
about your problems is really hard. It's doubly hard if you think you have
alternatives.

Getting medical help is a really big step. Taking St-John's Wort, or eating
more cumin, isn't. And that would be great if they were equivalent. But for a
lot of people, they absolutely aren't. Otherwise doctors would prescribe
exercise and sunlight.

I'd be really happy if every advice column on depression just told people to
go to a doctor. I mean, jesus, imagine if somebody put a github repo up about
how to self-treat cholera! Depression is really dangerous. It kills a lot of
people. If you have it, you should talk to a professional - not read random
studies that are probably p-hacking anyway.

~~~
jimnotgym
I will try and answer both of your posts together if that is OK.

1) I have suffered from and lived with sufferers of depression for my whole
life. It is rare for me to say so on a public forum, but there it is.

2) I have been in a dangerous place and sought medical help. I was prescribed
drugs which had catastrophic side-effects on me, and which persisted for years
after I went through the horrible withdrawal process that the said drug
causes. The drug was closer to killing me than the depression. I taught myself
a kind of CBT (I didn't know it was called that back then) and I have been
coping drug free for nearly two decades.

3) In the UK mental-health services are barely existent except for those in
the most extreme circumstances, after nearly a decade of government cuts.
Doctors prescribe drugs because that is all they can do. They refer you to
counseling, but you face months of wait. Anecdotally it seems that most
depression suffers never get the therapy that may really help them. Much of
this is cultural in that somehow in 2018 people still think depression is not
a real disease.

4) These stories are extremely popular on HN, and often make it to the front
page, which suggests there is a demand.

> probably p-hacking anyway.

5) What an absurd slur.

> doctors would prescribe exercise and sunlight

6) They most certainly do exactly this. I have heard it with my own ears. A
doctor told a person I know that they should try St. Johns Wort before risking
anti-depressents.

> jesus, imagine if somebody put a github repo up about how to self-treat
> cholera!

7) Is a strawman, but since you brought it up, prevention of Cholera is most
definitely a self-help exercise of some worth. I believe the main treatment is
'hydration' btw. I urge all Cholera suffers who are able to to seek out
medical attention, for those with no access to it, hydration would seem like a
valuable self-help technique.

> I'd be really happy if every advice column on depression just told people to
> go to a doctor

8) This list does that in the opening section. It suggests discussing the
articles with a doctor too.

> I went through a period of simply trying everything anybody recommended, no
> matter how ridiculous

9) The antithesis of researching a list of articles and being well informed
when you chose to visit your medical professional to discuss it with them. If
you are in the frame of mind to try snake-oil, I seriously doubt a list like
this would make any difference either way.

10) Not all depression sufferers are 'cured' by their doctor. Not all react
well (or at all) to drugs. Everyone I know who has learned to manage their
depression has (once they have got through the denial) done it through
lifestyle changes, CBT, lighting, exercise etc. If you search through the
links you will find novel drug therapies which are helping people
(dramatically) who have had no benefit at all from existing medicine, and have
been shown to do so in a peer reviewed study (before you repeat that slur). If
a close family member of mine was in that situation I have no doubt at all
that I would be keen for them to find out about it and go and discuss it with
their doctor.

11) I don't feel the need to protect anyone from information.

~~~
pasabagi
Obviously you had a bad experience with anti-depressants - many people do. I
have also had bad experiences with various drugs. The english mental health
system is horrible, agreed.

However, I don't think reading articles, however scientific, is a substitute
for five years of training to be a psychiatrist or psychologist - and if you
don't think p-hacking is endemic in this space, I have a bridge to sell you.

I can't stop you doing what you are doing. But if you tell somebody who has
cholera that 'drinking water' was an alternative to going to a doctor, and
they died, you'd go to prison. If even one person takes your advice, against
the scientific consensus that anti-depressants work, tries to 'hack' their
depression with your 'alternatives', you'll be partially responsible for the
outcome.

Ultimately, the question is: are you confident enough of your
psychiatric/psychological credentials to offer advice about a life-threatening
condition?

Because that is what you are doing.

~~~
jimnotgym
> However, I don't think reading articles, however scientific, is a substitute
> for five years of training to be a psychiatrist or psychologist

Why do you keep pushing this line? The page quite clearly says on line 4 and
line 6 that you should talk to a doctor. It even suggests discussing the
listed things with a doctor.

If a doctor prescribed me a statin to help with my cholesterol, then I went
away and read up and found that reducing the amount of bacon I was eating
would also help, then I went back and discussed that with my doctor, am I
better or worse off?

If I delete my Github account right now does the information I linked to go
away? In lots of cases I have linked to the discussion rather than the
article, where the extraordinarily critical HN crowd have pulled the article
apart, searched for p-hacking and other frauds and discussed any merits. Is
that better or worse than the tabloid stories that abound on health? I don't
see how more information about your condition could be a bad thing?

------
grok2
A little while back, there was this submission to hacker news that didn't get
much traction/attention, but which was about a research study that seemed to
suggest that Vitamin D deficiency was a symptom of an underlying problem and
just supplementing with Vitamin D was not sufficient as a fix and that the
underlying cause of the deficiency the study said could be inflammation
related to bacterial infection.

[https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007%2Fs00011-014-0755-...](https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007%2Fs00011-014-0755-z)

~~~
delbel
I didn't know about this study or the post, but I have also brought this up
before and downvoted to hell. Bacteria that can evade the immune system can
eat up all your vitamin D and wreck havoc. The solution is to eat other
beneficial bacteria that eat them or their food and balance things out. This
bacteria is LAB pro-biotics you can find in the store. Along with that, eating
fiber to feed the pro-biotics so they don't die off. But if you eat health
organic food, you get all of this. There's a GMO bacteria used as a pesticide
that might be causing this. Anyway, if you bring these things up you are
called a conspiracy theorist on this site. Its just common sense. Eat good
non-GMO and non-gmo bacteria treated food with fiber, stay away from junk
food, take pro-biotics, get sunlight.

~~~
jononor
Which GMO bacteria?

~~~
grok2
Apparently Bacillus Thuringiensis is used to genetically modify some kinds of
plants/seeds like corn/potato/cotton etc, so the plants become naturally
resistant to certain insects/worms. But these insects/worms are also now
slowly getting resistant to the bacteria (evolution). It doesn't seem like
there is genetically modified bacteria itself that is used as pesticide....

------
m4burns
This is close to the rate of vitamin D deficiency in the general population,
e.g.
[https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21310306](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21310306)

~~~
tfehring
The study you linked was based on a threshold of 50 nmol/L, while the
originally posted study used two thresholds, 30 nmol/L and 50 nmol/L. At the
50 nmol/L cutoff, the study you linked indicates a deficiency rate of 41.6%
for the general population, compared to a rate of 91.3% among psychiatric
patients according to the posted study.

I’d still take the posted study with a grain of salt. Vitamin D deficiency
between individuals is likely to be highly correlated within a particular
region and time period due to its dependence on weather, and the authors
didn’t control for that. But they did say that this was just a pilot, and
given the effect size it’s probably worth investigating further.

Edit: fixed units

~~~
petra
Regarding the weather: most people most often stay indoors or in cars(does the
glass filter the Vitmain-D causing rays), and usually wear long pants and a
shirt, so only a small body area is exposed to the sun, so it's possible that
even in summer, people suffer from Vitamin-D deficiency.

~~~
mikehotel
Be careful with increased exposure to sunlight. UV is a known carcinogen.
[https://www.cancer.org/cancer/cancer-causes/radiation-
exposu...](https://www.cancer.org/cancer/cancer-causes/radiation-exposure/uv-
radiation/uv-radiation-does-uv-cause-cancer.html)

There are safer sources of vitamin D.

~~~
ovao
To this end, I strongly suggest checking your local UV index before heading
outdoors for any extended period of time. I use an iOS app called UVLens (no
affiliation), which displays your local UV index throughout the day and can
give you an estimate of how long before you’ll burn (based on skin color, eye
color, etc.)

Provided you’re taking reasonable precautions, limited exposure to broad-
spectrum UV is quite safe.

~~~
walshemj
You just need to slap on some suntan location if its going to be sunny - which
what I do to counter the increased risk due to meds I have to take

------
conorh
If you are going to supplement your vitamin D, just make sure to monitor your
calcium too. My wife sees patients taking high doses of vitamin D, because
their doctor puts them on it, or they do it themselves, and they do not
realize that they are doing massive damage to their bodies because their low
vitamin D levels are caused by a parathyroid tumor.

[http://www.parathyroid.com/low-vitamin-d.htm](http://www.parathyroid.com/low-
vitamin-d.htm)

~~~
kenning
This happens to your wife commonly?

~~~
conorh
Yes, several times a week. She is a parathyroid surgeon.

------
nabla9
> It is unclear why the prevalence of vitamin D deficiency found in this study
> was higher compared with the general population.

There are relatively large number of studies linking vitamin D deficiency and
mental illness. This is not the best study to use as point of discussion.

I'm sure there are review articles.

edit: like this: [https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/the-british-
journal-...](https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/the-british-journal-of-
psychiatry/article/vitamin-d-deficiency-and-depression-in-adults-systematic-
review-and-metaanalysis/F4E7DFBE5A7B99C9E6430AF472286860)

and this:
[https://academic.oup.com/jcem/article/99/10/3863/2836573](https://academic.oup.com/jcem/article/99/10/3863/2836573)

TL;DR: There is a link but randomized trials are needed to find the causal
link.

------
jacquesm
What about other deficiencies? Other vitamins and nutrients? You'd expect
people that are admitted to psychiatric hospitals to have more than one
deficiency since they might not be able to take good care of themselves.

~~~
econochoice
Search for micronutrient deficiencies + a psychiatric condition on PubMed and
you'll get many results.

Off the top of my head zinc, magnesium, various forms of B-vitamins and
selenium imbalances are seen in different disorders. Zinc deficiency in
depression, zinc overabundance in schizophrenia. Both zinc and magnesium seem
to have roles in NMDA neurotransmission. B-vitamins play a role in
neurotransmitter production.

------
jrochkind1
No comparison to prevalence of vitamin D deficiency in the general population?

~~~
cjbprime
They might not have the correct data for comparison -- you'd need to control
for climate, so national or international rate of deficiency wouldn't be a
good comparison.

~~~
jrochkind1
Sure. But I'm not sure what the takeaway is without it. I guess just another
data point for future analysis. Or yeah, another paper for someone's CV and
tenure promotion.

------
mark_l_watson
If you are over 60, get your vitamin D blood levels checked! Made a big
difference for me, simply increasing dose

------
goldenkey
Previous relevant discussion:
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16771044](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16771044)

------
diimdeep
I live in Moscow, last winter we had only few hours of sunlight in December.
Two months ago I went to test Vitamin D and got <10 ng/ml which is extremely
low deficiency, currently doing around 8000ME daily.

Reading:

\- Holick MF, Binkley NC, Bischoff-Ferrari HA, Gordon CM, Hanley DA, Heaney
RP, Murad MH, Weaver CM; Endocrine Society. Evaluation, treatment, and
prevention of vitamin D deficiency: an Endocrine Society clinical practice
guideline. J Clin Endocrinol Metab. 2011 Jul;96(7):1911- 30. doi:
10.1210/jc.2011-0385. Epub 2011 Jun 6.

\- Guidelines for preventing and treating vitamin D deficiency and
insufficiency revisited. J Clin Endocrinol Metab. 2012 Apr;97(4):1153-8. doi:
10.1210/jc.2011-2601.

\- Vitamin D deficiency: a worldwide problem with health consequences. Am J
Clin Nutr. 2008 Apr;87(4):1080S-6S.

\- Vitamin D deficiency in the Middle East and its health consequences. Clin
Rev Bone Miner Metab 7:77–93

\- Vitamin D supplementation guidelines Pawel Pludowski

\- Treatment of hypovitaminosis D with pharmacologic doses of cholecalciferol,
oral vs intramuscular; an open labeled RCT. Zabihiyeganeh M1, Jahed A, Nojomi
M.

------
internetman55
Is there any informed discussion of the value of reading articles like this
versus just not and doing what your doctor says ?

~~~
Strom
That depends heavily on both your own and your doctor's knowledge/ability. If
you're unsure if you can safely extract value from these articles then you
should only listen to your doctor.

------
tcj_phx
The whac-a-mole [1] tendency of psychiatry is revealed by this line from this
submission's link:

> Assessment and treatment of vitamin D deficiency should be considered in in-
> patients _to protect musculoskeletal health_. Further epidemiological and
> intervention studies are needed to investigate the role of vitamin D in the
> pathophysiology of mental disorders. [emphasis added]

The full context of vitamin D synthesis and conversion is relevant, not just
"protect musculoskeletal health". Vitamin D is manufactured in the skin from
cholesterol, but has to be activated in the liver & kidneys through "enzymatic
conversion" [0]. Cholesterol is manufactured in the liver. If a person's liver
is burdened by "stress", malnourishment, etc, it won't have the capacity to
produce cholesterol for the skin to turn into vitamin D.

Mental disorders are fundamentally related to stress and metabolism. Stress
takes many forms; emotional stress is the most important. The whole organism's
metabolic processes are relevant when figuring out the cause of "mental"
problems.

Just the other day I talked with my ~50y.o. Canadian friend. Her brother is
dying from complications of drug addiction (opiates and everything else). She
said he never had a good relationship with their father, and was devastated
when their grandfather was killed right next to him in a farm accident
(brother was 16 y.o. at the time)...

[0]
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vitamin_D](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vitamin_D)

[1] [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whac-A-
Mole](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whac-A-Mole) :

    
    
      The term "Whac-a-mole" (or "Whack-a-mole") is used 
      colloquially to denote a repetitious and futile task: each 
      time an adversary is "whacked", it only pops up again 
      somewhere else. In a military context, the term is used to 
      refer to ostensibly inferior opposing troops who keep re-
      appearing. In a programming/debugging context it 
      refers to the fact that fixing a bug has a certain chance 
      of creating a new bug which itself needs to be fixed. 
      In a web context, it refers to the process of fending off 
      recurring spammers, vandals or miscreants.

------
samstave
Weird question: i saw an article yesterday saying that redheads naturally
produce more vitamin d.

So, what is the prevalence of redheads in psychiatric hospitals?

~~~
Reason077
Those with _pale skin_ naturally produce more vitamin D. This is because the
pigmentation in your skin (Melanin), which protects skin from sun damage, also
reduces vitamin D production.

Pale skin is in fact an evolutionary adaptation to living in less sunny
climates. That's why Vitamin D deficiency, in an un-sunny climate like
Britain, is more prevalent in British Asian and Black British populations than
in White British.

This "redheads" association is due to red hair often being associated with
pale skin, and not specifically due to hair colour. Some of the genes
associated with less skin pigmentation also result less hair pigmentation
(blonde or red hair).

------
mythas
These kinds of studies often feel like the result of some p-hacking. Take a
smallish sample size from a population of interest, record a bunch of data on
them, then pick the result that is most abnormal and say “hmmm maybe this is
why this population is different.” Not saying that’s the case here I’m just
always skeptical until I know the methodology.

------
jxub
And abundance of vitamin D through sun exposure is a reason why it's great to
live in Mediterranean Basin, Australia or California instead of Norway, Sweden
or Canada. Sun is a huge factor in both health and happiness although the
northern societies seem to underplay it.

~~~
grok2
"It has been suggested by some vitamin D researchers, for example, that
approximately 5–30 minutes of sun exposure between 10 AM and 3 PM at least
twice a week to the face, arms, legs, or back without sunscreen usually lead
to sufficient vitamin D synthesis..." as per [1]. Maybe the quality of
exposure is different? Atleast from reading articles like this, it seems like
normally people at any latitude should not have trouble getting sufficient
Vitamin D.

1\. [https://ods.od.nih.gov/factsheets/VitaminD-
HealthProfessiona...](https://ods.od.nih.gov/factsheets/VitaminD-
HealthProfessional)

~~~
cuspycode
This is a hasty conclusion. For example, the city of Kiruna in northern Sweden
(latitude 67 degrees north) has about three weeks of total darkness each
winter. So there is no sun exposure at all during that time. And even south of
the arctic circle, the chance of getting 5-30 minutes of sun exposure twice a
week is not guaranteed in northern countries. For example, you might be stuck
in an office building while the sun is above the horizon.

------
bipolar_throw
Throwaway account here.

I started taking vitamin D supplement a few years ago. I believe it has helped
improve my Bipolar disorder (less lows where I can't get out of bed). Added to
my meds and I really think it helps but case study of one with wayyyyy too
many variables.

------
herbst
I come from a place where winters are very gray and rarely offer some sun.

When I moved somewhere else, with friendly sunny winters I was surprised to
learn that 'winter depression' was not even a common phrase.

------
yani
Depressed people do not go out. Vitamin D comes mostly from Sunlight. Vitamin
D is not the cause. I am pretty sure that weight imballance can also be found
in such individuals.

------
mrfusion
so you’d expect to see fewer cases the further south go. I wonder how that
holds up?

~~~
vostok
You would need to be careful about comparing areas that are otherwise similar
or do something more sophisticated than merely comparing rates of psychiatric
hospitalization between two areas. Average incomes and other factors are
probably important too.

------
jrq
Most of these patients are likely exhibiting some spectrum of antisocial
behavior, which means staying indoors or generally away from other people.

I don't think it's as interesting as it seems. I'm rather certain there's a
sensible explanation.

~~~
ThrowawayP
> _...antisocial behavior, which means staying indoors or generally away from
> other people._

That is not at all what "antisocial behavior" means. See
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anti-
social_behaviour](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anti-social_behaviour)

~~~
wenc
Right. I learned that in the UK there is even an Anti-social Behavior Order
(ASBO), essentially a catch-all law for people exhibiting these behaviors
(which apparently spans all kinds of stuff from graffiti to littering). No
comment as to the rightness or wrongness of this, but there it is.

~~~
TheSpiceIsLife
It’s in the DSM, which is published by the American Psychiatric Association.

[https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antisocial_personality_disor...](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antisocial_personality_disorder)

------
smt88
Something worth noting is that many mental illnesses cause symptoms (lack of
motivation, social anxiety, fear of leaving the house, etc.) that make people
less likely to go outside.

~~~
fb03
Sadly you can't affirm that to all of the affected population, that needs
testing. Some mentally ill people like to go out and walk mindlessly all day
long. I am sure you know some 'walkers' in your vicinity, there's always one.

~~~
smt88
Causality needs testing, but correlation isn't a wild leap. 25% of Americans
suffer from either depression or anxiety, and the next-highest disorder isn't
even close[1]. Those ambulatory people are highly visible, but a tiny fraction
of the overall population.

1\. [https://www.nami.org/learn-more/mental-health-by-the-
numbers](https://www.nami.org/learn-more/mental-health-by-the-numbers)

------
yosito
TL;DR the jury is still out on whether or not you need the D for your mental
health.

~~~
yosito
I'm not sure if I got downvoted for the joke, or because people think I'm
wrong, but near the end of the study it says "At the current time, there is
insufficient evidence to draw any firm conclusions regarding an association
between vitamin D deficiency and non-musculoskeletal health outcomes,
including mental illness." So the jury is in fact out on whether or not you
need vitamin D for your mental health.

~~~
TheForumTroll
Both. One is a Reddit joke and the other is wrong no matter what the linked
article says. There are hundreds of studies that link mental health problems
like Schizophrenia and Vit.d deficiency.

------
yelloweyes
mentally ill > stays inside more often

not really a hard conclusion to reach

~~~
DanBC
You haven't tested

Mentally ill > lives on the streets in the sun all day

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Bakary
It's not the actual presence in a dwelling that is the detrimental to mood but
the implied lack of social interaction or meaningful pursuits. A homeless
person can have those same problems to a greater extent and with other health
issues included.

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vinniejames
So people locked indoors who can't see the sun have a vitamin D deficiency?
Shocking...

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jimnotgym
It says in the title that the study is talking about adults _admitted_ to...
that suggest they already had the deficiency

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RyanRies
People who are admitted to mental hospitals don't spend much time out in the
sun or eat healthy diets? Fascinating.

