Vitamin D Supplementation in Chronic Schizophrenia Patients Treated with Clozapine: A Randomized, Double-Blind, Placebo-controlled Clinical Trial

• Published in: EBioMedicine 2017-12, Vol.26 (C), p.138-145
• Main Authors: Krivoy, Amir, Onn, Roy, Vilner, Yael, Hochman, Eldar, Weizman, Shira, Paz, Amir, Hess, Shmuel, Sagy, Roi, Kimhi-Nesher, Shiri, Kalter, Ehud, Friedman, Tal, Friedman, Zvi, Bormant, Gil, Trommer, Sharon, Valevski, Avi, Weizman, Abraham
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Adult; Antipsychotic Agents - administration & dosage; Antipsychotic Agents - adverse effects; Clozapine; Clozapine - administration & dosage; Clozapine - adverse effects; Cognition; Cognition - drug effects; Cognition - physiology; Dietary Supplements; Double-Blind Method; Female; Humans; Male; Metabolic syndrome; Metabolic Syndrome - blood; Metabolic Syndrome - diet therapy; Metabolic Syndrome - drug therapy; Metabolic Syndrome - pathology; Middle Aged; Mood; Psychotic Disorders - blood; Psychotic Disorders - diet therapy; Psychotic Disorders - drug therapy; Psychotic Disorders - pathology; Research Paper; Schizophrenia; Schizophrenia - blood; Schizophrenia - diet therapy; Schizophrenia - drug therapy; Schizophrenia - pathology; Vitamin D; Vitamin D - administration & dosage; Vitamin D - blood
• ISSN: 2352-3964; 2352-3964
• DOI: 10.1016/j.ebiom.2017.11.027

While accumulating evidence suggests that vitamin D deficiency may be involved in the risk to develop schizophrenia and its outcome, there are no studies on vitamin D supplementation in this context. We sought to assess the effect of vitamin D supplementation on psychiatric, cognitive and metabolic parameters in chronic clozapine-treated schizophrenia patients. This eight-week, randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled clinical trial, recruited schizophrenia patients who had been maintained on clozapine treatment for at least 18weeks and had low levels of vitamin D (70 (to ascertain the presence of residual symptoms). Patients were randomly allocated to either weekly oral drops of vitamin D (14,000IU) or placebo and subsequently assessed at two-week intervals for psychosis severity, mood, cognition and metabolic profile. Twenty four patients were randomly assigned to vitamin D (aged 39.4±9.6years, 75% males) and the other 23 patients to the placebo arm (aged 42.5±11.2years, 60.9% males). After eight weeks, the vitamin D group exhibited a significant increase in vitamin D levels (31.4 vs −0.4nmol/l, p