The Journal of

  Background: Vitamin D plays a known role in a wide range of diseases such as osteoporosis, cancer, cardiovascular diseases, and diabetes. Recently, the role of vitamin D in cognitive function and mental health has been reported as well. Vitamin D concentrations have been demonstrated to be low in patients suffering from mood disorders and have been associated with cognitive function. The aim of the present study was to determine concentration level of serum 25-Hydroxyvitamin D in depressed people in Yazd.

  Methods: In this cross-sectional study, 211 depressed patients with Beck Depression Inventory ) BDI ( score above 17 were studied. The data were collected by questionnaires and blood sampling was performed to measure serum 25(OH) vitamin D. Vitamin D deficiency was determined at the level of 25(OH) D< 35 nmol/L .

  Resulst: Out of 211 participate s, 33.2% were men and 66.8% were women. The mean of age was 33.4. Median concentration of 25-OH vitamin D levels in all the patients, men and women, were 26.4, 36 and 22.6 nmol/L respectively. The results showed that 34.3 % of subjects were in a normal status but 65.7 % had vitamin D deficiency . Totally 39.5% and 7.6 % of the patients suffered from moderate and severe deficiency respectively. No correlation was detected between vitamin D level and BDI score in this study.

 Conclusion: We observed a high prevalence of vitamin D deficiency among depressed subjects like other groups of people in Yazd, therefore requiring immediate attention to detect its reasons and finding the effect of vitamin D deficiency elimination on depression status.