Interpret with caution
Weighing in on this research for this news organization, Richard Saitz, MD, MPH, professor, Boston University Schools of Medicine and Public Health, urged caution in interpreting the results.
“The human studies are cross-sectional and subject to many biases and may show that opioid use and disorder are associated with vitamin D deficiency (which is not news) and does not at all show deficiency causes disorder or use,” said Dr. Saitz.
“All in all, the studies are interesting and could generate hypotheses to be tested in well-designed prospective studies of vitamin D deficiency as a risk factor and vitamin D as a treatment,” he added.
However, he cautioned that it’s “going way beyond the data” to conclude that vitamin D causes or exacerbates opioid addiction in people, “but suggesting clinical studies be done is certainly reasonable.”
Also weighing in on this research, Kenneth Stoller, MD, director of the Johns Hopkins Broadway Center for Addiction and associate professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences at Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, noted that “95% of patients with co-occurring disorders coming to the inpatient unit are vitamin D deficient, so it’s very common in the population.
“It’s hard to know, but I really think that it’s unlikely that vitamin D deficiency is a common pathway for development of addiction – that is, that they developed an addiction specifically because of the vitamin D deficiency,” Dr. Stoller said.
“However, it does make me think that for my patients who are experiencing maybe a partial but not a full response to medications for opioid use disorder, maybe I’ll be more likely to check the vitamin D level, and if it’s really off, try them on some supplementation,” said Dr. Stoller.
He pointed to a recent study that showed some benefit of vitamin D supplementation on cognitive function and some mental health parameters for people on methadone, “but I don’t think this is necessarily a silver bullet.”
The work was supported by a grant from the National Institutes of Health and the Dr. Miriam and Sheldon G. Adelson Medical Research Foundation. Dr. Fisher, Dr. Saitz, and Dr. Stoller have disclosed no relevant financial relationships.
A version of this article first appeared on Medscape.com.