According to WHO depression will be the foremost cause of morbidity by 2030. It is a severe neuropsychiatric ailment which can lead to increased morbidity with considerable impairment in social functioning and mortality. Low vitamin D levels contributes to the pathophysiology of depressive symptoms.

Objective of study: To evaluate the Impact of Vitamin D Supplementation on Depression Severity Using PHQ-9

       Materials and Methods

It is an interventional study. Duration of study was 9 months after the approval of the synopsis. It was conducted in the psychiatric ward 21 of JPMC. Eighty (80) diagnosed patients of depressive disorder were randomly assigned into two groups to be given 600,000 IU of vitamin D intramuscularly plus Escitalopram or Escitalopram only for 08 weeks. Depression intensity was gauged at 02 weeks intervals using Hamilton Depression Rating Scale (HDRS) as a principal result.

Results

The result revealed that there was a notable decrease in depressive symptoms in interventional group with vitamin D as compared to only Escitalopram group. There was also a decline in PHQ-9 scoring from 11.48± 4.42 to 8.55± 3.53 in interventional group before and after receiving vitamin D respectively with a very significant p value (0.002), while in control group receiving only Escitalopram it was 9.37± 4.60.