Effects of Vitamin D Supplementation on Cognitive and Emotional Functioning in Young Adults – A Randomised Controlled Trial

Study answer

What this study found

Vitamin D supplementation increased 25OHD3 levels but did not improve cognitive or emotional functioning in healthy young adults. In the vitamin D arm, 25OHD3 rose from 76.2 to 98.0 nmol/L, with a significant baseline to follow-up change (F = 21.44; p < 0.001; d = 0.83), but there were no significant time by group effects for working memory (p = 0.30), response inhibition (p = 0.37), cognitive flexibility (p = 0.24), hallucination count (p = 0.88), depressive symptoms (p = 0.51), or anxiety and anger outcomes (p = 0.23 and p = 0.26). The authors concluded that supplementation does not confer…

Study & population

Randomized controlled trial in healthy young adults recruited from the University of Queensland in Australia.

Intervention

Vitamin D3 (cholecalciferol) was given as 5000 IU per capsule, taken orally once daily for 6 weeks, versus placebo.

Key limitation

Short 6-week duration and a relatively small, healthy young adult sample from a single university limit generalizability.

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Original abstract