3 ms·
Oh for sure, placebo is a strong possibility for me (the sense of taking action perhaps provides the mood improvement which is not quite placebo but a related e
by pbhjpbhj 6y ago
Oh for sure, placebo is a strong possibility for me (the sense of taking action perhaps provides the mood improvement which is not quite placebo but a related effect); also on HN we're perhaps a lot more likely to be "shut-ins" (or approaching that) and so we're starting from a non-representative pool.
For me, I just noticed a few comments saying it helped their depression, was considering VitD already for Covid19 reasons, and figured the possible level of harm was almost zero so I'd give it a shot.
Not sure I'd expect a large randomised group to have a noticeable effect (can you link the study you mention, please) but perhaps "people who have reported depression, have been tested and found to be low in VitD" as a starting group and then see if it does better than placebo.
Thanks for your comment.
- jonex 6y agoFor people with vitamin D deficiency I would not be surprised if there's a connection to depression and I guess standard advice applies: If you think you might be at risk, get yourself tested. If nothing else, you can avoid experiencing the bone related issues that a vit D deficiency might cause. This was the study I was thinking of (they did not target people with depression) https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jama/article-abstract/2768978 https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jama/article-abstract/27689... Weirdly I couldn't find any studies on the effects of supplementing with vitamin D for depression, even though there's plenty of studies on the correlation, and even one study where they used it for treatment, without any control group...
- pbhjpbhj 6y agoThanks, appreciate your useful response. I guess the lack of studies comes down to the morality of in vivo testing of treatments; the chances of someone untreated going off the rails is considered too great a risk.