Vitamin D and mental health: a translational focus on substance use, mood and anxiety disorders

Substance use disorders are a complex psychiatric condition characterized by withdrawal stages with strong emotional symptoms like anxiety and depression. The comorbidity of substance use disorders with anxiety and mood disorders emphasizes the key role of emotional impairments in their physiopathology. Growing evidence highlights the involvement of vitamin D in emotion regulation. Our work shows that clinical data establish a correlation between vitamin D deficit and negative emotional symptoms of substance use, mood and anxiety disorders and benefits from vitamin D supplementation. Furthermore, pre-clinical studies have recapitulated these results in models of substance use and mood disorders. Finally, the underlying molecular mechanisms required supplementary efforts to be understood to support ultimately clinical recommendations of vitamin D supplementation for substance use, depression and anxiety disorders management.