IMR Press / JIN / Volume 21 / Issue 6 / DOI: 10.31083/j.jin2106155
Open Access Systematic Review
The Role of Vitamin D in Basal Ganglia Diseases
Show Less
1 Department of Neurology, Medical University Graz, 8036 Graz, Austria
2 Department of Public Health, St. Elisabeth University of Health and Social Schiences, 81000 Bratislava, Slovakia
*Correspondence: nik.homann@medunigraz.at (Carl Nikolaus Homann)
Academic Editor: Gernot Riedel
J. Integr. Neurosci. 2022, 21(6), 155; https://doi.org/10.31083/j.jin2106155
Submitted: 27 April 2022 | Revised: 14 July 2022 | Accepted: 15 July 2022 | Published: 20 September 2022
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Vitamin D and the Nervous System)
Copyright: © 2022 The Author(s). Published by IMR Press.
This is an open access article under the CC BY 4.0 license.
Abstract

Objective: Vitamin D (VitD) has been shown to influence several cellular processes in the brain. The extent to which VitD plays a role in the pathomechanism of neuronal loss and dysfunction in basal ganglia diseases (BGDs) is still debated. There is yet to be a comprehensive study that provides an overview of all of the most relevant BGDs. Methods: PubMed, and Google Scholar were systematically searched for observational studies that investigated the association between serum VitD levels and BGDs up to March 2022. Results: We extracted 60 studies, but with a great variety of design and quality. VitD deficiency appears to be common in most BGDs, but only in Parkinson’s disease (PD) has a causal association been fully examined. There is some evidence that low VitD serum levels influence symptom severity, most notably in restless legs syndrome (RLS), PD, and tic disorders. The effects of vitamin D supplementation were studied in three BGDs, with results mostly favorable for RLS, ambiguous for tics, and mostly unfavorable for PD. Conclusions: There are still various elements of BGDs with insufficient, ambiguous, or altogether absent evidence, and further high-quality research is required. However, there appears to be sufficient scientific justification already to recommend that practitioners treating BGDs check serum VitD levels and supplement as appropriate.

Keywords
basal ganglia diseases
movement disorders
vitamin D
deficiency
insufficiency
disease severity
risk factor
biomarker
supplementation
Figures
Fig. 1.
Share
Back to top