الفهرس 
VITAMIN DOnly 14 pages are availabe for public view
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Abstract
Lately, vitamin D gained new respect apart from its old role in calcium homeostasis and bone metabolism. The discovery of vitamin D receptor (VDR) in many tissues and cells proves the role of vitamin D in many systems. Vitamin D has been increasingly related to cognitive decline and mental health.
Common mental disorders, including depression and schizophrenia are widespread in the general population. Depression is a major public health problem and is projected to be the second most important cause of disability worldwide in 2020. Also people with schizophrenia tend to experience difficulties in social and cognitive function, self-care, residual negative symptoms, high rates of unemployment, and social exclusion. This leads to high costs for treatment and reduced productivity.
The aim of the study was to assess the clinical utility of serum 25-hydroxy vitamin D assay as a risk factor in depression and schizophrenic and to assess a possible relation between low 25-hydroxy vitamin D and severity of depressive disorder
This study was conducted at Institute of Psychiatry, Ain Shams University on (50) mentally ill patients diagnosed by ICD-10 diagnostic criteria for mental illness divided into two groups Group 1: including 25 patients with depression and group 2: including 25 schizophrenic patients, in addition to 25 healthy adult subjects matching for age and sex serving as a control group (Group 3).
All individuals included in the study were subjected to medical and psychiatric history taking. Patients with chronic liver disease, renal diseases, pregnant and lactating females and patients taking vitamin D supplements were excluded. Assessment of mental illness severity was done according to ICD-10 diagnostic criteria for depression and schizophrenia and serum 25-hydroxy vitamin D was assayed using the enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) technique.
Our study recognized that schizophrenic patients showed highly significant lower BMI and higher rates of smoking.
Moreover, results of the present study demonstrated that patients with schizophrenia and depression have highly significant lower serum levels of vitamin D compared to control subjects. A significant relationship was found between low serum level of vitamin D in schizophrenic patients and the rate of unemployment compared to control subjects. Moreover, we found low serum level of vitamin D in schizophrenic patients on medications.
This work have some limitation; the small sample size, lack of formal research measures for diagnosis and severity of illness, documented family psychiatric history and intake of Vitamin D and other dietary nutrients.
Conclusion
Low vitamin D levels are associated with psychotic disorders such as schizophrenia as well as depression which suggest that vitamin D deficiency levels may play a role in the pathogenesis of these psychotic disorders. However, our study could not demonstrate a possible association between low vitamin D levels and degree of severity in case of depression.