SynthesisPsychosomatic medicine2014
Vitamin D supplementation for depressive symptoms: a systematic review and meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials.
Synthesis in Psychosomatic medicine, 2014. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 105 papers, 17 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
105 citing papers in PubMed, 17 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 221 citations in OpenAlex.
- Vitamin D and depression in adults: A systematic review.Biomolecules & biomedicine · 2025Pooled it
- The efficacy and safety of complementary and alternative medicine for depression: an umbrella review.Revista brasileira de psiquiatria (Sao Paulo, Brazil : 1999) · 2024Pooled it
- Efficacy of vitamin D supplementation on depressive symptoms in older patients: a meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials.Frontiers in medicine · 2024Pooled it
- Severe Vitamin D Deficiency-A Possible Cause of Resistance to Treatment in Psychiatric Pathology.Medicina (Kaunas, Lithuania) · 2023Pooled it
- Supplementation of Vitamin D and Mental Health in Adults with Respiratory System Diseases: A Systematic Review of Randomized Controlled Trials.Nutrients · 2023Pooled it
- Effect of Vitamin D Supplementation on Depression in Adults: A Systematic Review of Randomized Controlled Trials (RCTs).Nutrients · 2023Pooled it
- Association of a low vitamin D status with risk of post-stroke depression: A meta-analysis and systematic review.Frontiers in nutrition · 2023Pooled it
- Pooled it
- Effect of vitamin D supplementation on the incidence and prognosis of depression: An updated meta-analysis based on randomized controlled trials.Frontiers in public health · 2022Pooled it
- Vitamin D Supplementation and Mental Health in Multiple Sclerosis Patients: A Systematic Review.Nutrients · 2021Pooled it
- Influence of Vitamin D Supplementation on Mental Health in Diabetic Patients: A Systematic Review.Nutrients · 2021Pooled it
- Vitamin D Supplementation and Mental Health in Inflammatory Bowel Diseases and Irritable Bowel Syndrome Patients: A Systematic Review.Nutrients · 2021Pooled it
- The Influence of Vitamin D Intake and Status on Mental Health in Children: A Systematic Review.Nutrients · 2021Pooled it
- Role of Vitamin D in Preventing and Treating Selected Extraskeletal Diseases-An Umbrella Review.Nutrients · 2020Pooled it
- Pooled it
- Non-skeletal health effects of vitamin D supplementation: A systematic review on findings from meta-analyses summarizing trial data.PloS one · 2017Pooled it
- Efficacy of vitamin D supplementation in major depression: A meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials.Journal of postgraduate medicinePooled it
- The impact of vitamin D supplementation on depression and anxiety in young individuals with depression and vitamin D insufficiency/deficiency.European journal of nutrition · 2026Trial
- Trial
- The effect of vitamin D supplementation on mental and functional health outcomes in African Americans with type 2 diabetes.The Journal of steroid biochemistry and molecular biology · 2025Trial
45 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
8 authors at 2 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
Abstract
objectiveThe aim of this study was to review the effects of vitamin D supplementation on depressive symptoms in randomized controlled trials. Although low vitamin D levels have been observationally associated with depressive symptoms, the effect of vitamin D supplementation as an antidepressant remains uncertain.
methodsMEDLINE, CINAHL, AMED, PsycINFO, Scopus, The Cochrane Library, and references of included reports (through May 2013) were searched. Two independent reviewers identified and extracted data from randomized trials that compared the effect of vitamin D supplementation on depressive symptoms to a control condition. Two additional reviewers assessed study quality using The Cochrane Risk of Bias Tool. Seven trials (3191 participants) were included.
resultsVitamin D supplementation had no overall effect on depressive symptoms (standardized mean difference [SMD], 0.14; 95% confidence interval [CI], -0.33 to 0.05, p = .16), although considerable heterogeneity was observed. Subgroup analysis showed that vitamin D supplementation for participants with clinically significant depressive symptoms or depressive disorder had a moderate, statistically significant effect (2 studies: SMD, -0.60; 95% CI, -1.19 to -0.01; p = .046), but a small, nonsignificant effect for those without clinically significant depression (5 studies: SMD, -0.04; 95% CI, -0.20 to 0.12; p = .61). Most trials had unclear or high risk of bias. Studies varied in the amount, frequency, duration, and mode of delivery of vitamin D supplementation.
conclusionsVitamin D supplementation may be effective for reducing depressive symptoms in patients with clinically significant depression; however, further high-quality research is needed.
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What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.