Low Levels of Vitamin D Linked to Teen Delusions, Hallucinations

Researchers have shown before that low vitamin D levels are linked with psychiatric disorders like major depression. 

Now, a presentation at the annual meeting of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry signals the importance of testing those who suffer from psychotic symptoms—delusions (fixed and false beliefs) and hallucinations—for vitamin D deficiency.

A group of researchers led by Dr. Barbara L. Gracious, a psychiatrist at Nationwide Children’s Hospital in Columbus, Ohio, presented data at that meeting showing that adolescents who were vitamin D deficient showed a fourfold (400 percent) increased rate of psychotic symptoms, compared to other adolescents with normal vitamin D levels who sought psychiatric treatment at the University of Rochester, in New York.    Read More