الفهرس 
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Abstract
Introduction:
Many studies have given an increasing amount of attention to a possible role of vitamin D in cognitive function and mental health. Vitamin D deficiencies have been linked with many neuropsychiatric disorders such as schizophrenia, Parkinson’s disease, Alzheimer’s disease, depression, and cognitive decline. A recently published meta-analysis showed that lower vitamin D levels were significantly associated with greater risk of depression in noninstitutionalized individuals. This study aimed to measure serum vitamin D level in patients diagnosed as major depressive disorder and to identify the possible impact of serum vitamin D level on severity of depression.
Methods:
We investigated 30 patients with MDD who were recently diagnosed and didn’t receive any medications, and 30 patients who were diagnosed with the same disorder and receiving therapeutic doses of antidepressants. The study was carried out at the Institute of Psychiatry, Ain Shams University.
They were assessed using the sociodemographic history taking, semi-structured clinical interview for DSM-IV (SCID I) and Hamilton rating scale for depression (HRSD). Blood samples were obtained from the subjects and serum vitamin D levels were measured by ELISA.
Results:
We found that 40 % of the study subjects had inadequate vitamin D level; 28.3% of them had vitamin D insufficiency (17 patients) and 11.7% had vitamin D deficiency (7 patients) and no significant correlation was found between vitamin D status and the severity of depressive symptoms.
Conclusion:
Vitamin D status could be negatively related to depressive symptoms, and patients suffering from MDD may have vitamin D inadequacy either insufficiency or deficiency. Also, there is no correlation between vitamin D status and severity of depressive symptoms.
Key words: vitamin D, major depressive disorder, severity of depression, vitamin D inadequacy