Effect of vitamin D on depression: an experimental study
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.18203/2319-2003.ijbcp20194112Keywords:
Animal, Depression, Interaction, Imipramine, Fluoxetine, Vitamin DAbstract
Background: There is a scarcity of studies regarding antidepressant activity of vitamin D in animals while there are some contradictory reports regarding the same in humans. Therefore the present study was planned to investigate the antidepressant effect of vitamin D and its interaction with standard antidepressant drugs in animals.
Methods: Forced swim test (FST) in adult male Wistar rats and tail suspension test (TST) in adult male Swiss albino mice were used to investigate antidepressant activity of vitamin D administered in single dose and multiple doses. Imipramine, a tri-cyclic antidepressant and fluoxetine, a selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor were used as standard antidepressant drugs. For interaction studies, half the therapeutic equivalent dose of vitamin D was combined with sub-effective dose (SED) of imipramine or fluoxetine. Data was expressed as Mean±SD and analyzed by standard statistical tests. P<0.05= significant. Present study was ethically approved.
Results: Single dose administration of vitamin D did not show significant antidepressant effect either in FST or TST. Multiple dose administration of vitamin D showed significant antidepressant activity in TST but not in FST. Combination of vitamin D (half dose) with SED of either standard antidepressant drugs did not show any significant antidepressant activity. None of the treatment groups showed any significant difference on locomotor activity.
Conclusions: In the present study, multiple dose administration of vitamin D showed some antidepressant activity. Further studies are needed to confirm and elaborate the role of vitamin D in behavioral disorders like depression.
References
Jacob KS. Depression: a major public health problem in need of a multi-sectoral response. Indian J Med Res. 2012;136(4):537-9.
Grover S, Dutt A, Avasthi A. An overview of Indian research in depression. Indian J Psychiatry. 2010;52(1):178-88.
Marcus M, Yasamy MT, van Ommeren M, Chisholm D, Saxena S. Depression: A Global Public Health Concern. NZ: World Mental Health Federation. 2012: 6-8
Fava M, Davidson KG. Definition and epidemiology of treatment-resistant depression. Psychiatr Clin North Am. 1996;19(2):179-200.
Stumpf WE, Privette TH. Light, vitamin D and psychiatry. Role of 1,25 dihydroxyvitamin D3 (soltriol) in etiology and therapy of seasonal affective disorder and other mental processes. Psychopharmacology (Berl). 1989;97(3):285-94.
Hoogendijk WJ, Lips P, Dik MG, Deeg DJ, Beekman AT, Penninx BW. Depression is associated with decreased 25-hydroxyvitamin D and increased parathyroid hormone levels in older adults. Arch Gen Psychiatry. 2008;65(5):508-12.
Kalueff AV, Lou YR, Laaksi I, Tuohimaa P. Increased anxiety in mice lackingvitamin D receptor gene. Neuroreport. 2004;15(8):1271-4.
Dumville JC, Miles JN, Porthouse J, Cockayne S, Saxon L, King C. Can vitamin D supplementation prevent winter-time blues? A randomised trial among older women. J Nutr Health Aging. 2006;10(2):151-3
Vogel HG. Drug discovery & Evaluation: Pharmacological assays. 3rd ed. New York: Springer; 2008.
Gupta SK. Drug screening methods (Preclinical evaluation of new drugs). 2nd ed. Chapter 27, Antidepressant Drugs. New Delhi: Jaypee Brothers Medical Publishers Limited; 2009: 392-399.
Castagné V, Moser P, Roux S, Porsolt RD. Rodent models of depression: forced swim and tail suspension behavioral despair tests in rats and mice. Chapter 8: Unit 8.10A. Curr Protoc Neurosci. 2011.
Gehlert DR, Rasmussen K, Shaw J, Li X, Ardayfio P, Craft L, et al. Preclinical evaluation of melanin-concentrating hormone receptor 1 antagonism for the treatment of obesity and depression. J Pharmacol Exp Ther. 2009;329(2):429-38.
Carlezon WA Jr, Mague SD, Parow AM, Stoll AL, Cohen BM, Renshaw PF. Antidepressant-like effects of uridine and omega-3 fatty acids are potentiated by combined treatment in rats. Biol Psychiatry. 2005;57(4):343-50.
Bhattacharya SK, Satyan KS, Ramanathan M. Experimental methods for evaluation of psychotropic agents in rodents: II-Antidepressants. Indian J Exp Biol. 1999;37(2):117-23.
Andreasen JT, Redrobe JP. Antidepressant-like effects of nicotine and mecamylamine in the mouse forced swim and tail suspension tests: role of strain, test and sex. Behav Pharmacol. 2009;20(3):286-95.
Liu X, Gershenfeld HK. Genetic differences in the tail-suspension test and its relationship to imipramine response among 11 inbred strains of mice. Biol Psychiatry. 2001;49(7):575-81.
Holmes A, Yang RJ, Murphy DL, Crawley JN. Evaluation of antidepressant-related behavioral responses in mice lacking the serotonin transporter. Neuropsychopharmacology. 2002;27(6):914-23.
McCann JC, Ames BN. Is there convincing biological or behavioral evidence linking vitamin D deficiency to brain dysfunction? FASEB J. 2008;22(4):982-1001.
Bertone-Johnson ER. Vitamin D and the occurrence of depression: causal association or circumstantial evidence? Nutr Rev. 2009;67(8):481-92.
Lurie SJ, Gawinski B, Pierce D, Rousseau SJ. Seasonal affective disorder. Am Fam Physician. 2006;74.
Mozaffari-Khosravi H, Nabizade L, Yassini-Ardakani SM, Hadinedoushan H, Barzegar K. The effect of 2 different single injections of high dose of vitamin D on improving the depression in depressed patients with vitamin D deficiency: a randomized clinical trial. J Clin Psychopharmacol. 2013;33(3):378-85.
Jorde R, Strand Hutchinson M, Kjærgaard M, Sneve M, Grimnes G. Supplementation with high doses of vitamin D to subjects without vitamin D deficiency may have negative effects: pooled data from four intervention trials in Tromsø. ISRN Endocrinol. 2013;2013:348705.
Murray R, Benderm D, Botham KM, Kennelly PJ, Rodwell V, Weil PA. Harper’s illustrated Biochemistry, 29th ed. Newyork. McGraw Hill Professional, 2012. Chapter 44. Micronutrients – vitamins and minerals; 2012.
Sweetman S, editor. Martindale: The complete drug reference. 36th ed. London: Pharmaceutical Press; 2009.
Walf AA, Frye CA. The use of the elevated plus maze as an assay ofanxiety-related behavior in rodents. Nat Protoc. 2007;2(2):322-8.
Eyles DW, Smith S, Kinobe R, Hewison M, McGrath JJ. Distribution of the vitamin D receptor and 1 alpha-hydroxylase in human brain. J Chem Neuroanat. 2005;29(1):21-3.
Féron F, Burne TH, Brown J, Smith E, McGrath JJ, Mackay-Sim A, et al. Developmental Vitamin D3 deficiency alters the adult rat brain. Brain Res Bull. 2005;65(2):141-8.
Duman RS. Neurotrophic factors in etiology and treatment of mood disorders. In: Sibley RD, Hanin I, Kuhar M, Skolnick P, editors. Handbook of contemporary neuropharmaoclogy. London: John Wiley & Sons, Inc; 2007: 789-820.
