Vitamin D, Folate and the Intracranial Volume in Schizophrenia and Bipolar Disorder and Healthy Controls

• Published in: Scientific reports Vol. 8; no. 1; pp. 10817 - 9
• Main Authors: Gurholt, Tiril P., Osnes, Kåre, Nerhus, Mari, Jørgensen, Kjetil N., Lonning, Vera, Berg, Akiah O., Andreassen, Ole A., Melle, Ingrid, Agartz, Ingrid
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: London Nature Publishing Group UK 17.07.2018; Nature Publishing Group
• Subjects: 59/57; 631/378; 692/699/476/1333; 692/699/476/1799; Bipolar disorder; Folic acid; Humanities and Social Sciences; Magnetic resonance imaging; Medicin och hälsovetenskap; Mental disorders; multidisciplinary; Neurodevelopment; Neuroimaging; Phenotypes; Risk factors; Schizophrenia; Science; Science (multidisciplinary); Vitamin B; Vitamin D; Vitamin deficiency
• ISSN: 2045-2322; 2045-2322
• DOI: 10.1038/s41598-018-29141-y

Vitamin D and folate deficiency are considered risk factors for schizophrenia and bipolar disorders, but it is unknown how vitamin D and folate influence the growing brain, cranium or the clinical phenotype. Serum vitamin D and folate levels are in part genetically regulated. We investigated whether adult vitamin D and folate levels are associated with the intracranial volume (ICV) under the hypothesis that developmental vitamin D or folate levels influence neurodevelopment and that current levels are associated with ICV. Ninety patients with severe mental disorders and 91 healthy controls underwent 3 T magnetic resonance imaging and serum sampling. Multiple linear regression was used to assess the contribution of serum vitamin D, folate and patient-control status on ICV. We show that vitamin D levels were within lower range for patients and controls (48.8 ± 22.1 nmol/l and 53.4 ± 20.0 nmol/l, respectively). A significant positive association was found between vitamin D and ICV (p = 0.003, r = 0.22), folate was trend-significantly associated with ICV. Folate and vitamin D were significantly associated (p = 0.0001, r = 0.28). There were nonsignificant patient-control differences and no interaction effects. The results suggest that Vitamin D is associated with ICV as detected in the adult. Further studies are warranted for replication and to investigate possible mechanisms and genetic associations.