Vitamin D deficiency may increase risk for opioid addiction

I BELIEVE HIM –

June 13, 2021 – People with low levels of vitamin D might be at an increased risk for opioid dependence or addiction — and the deficit could be fixed with cheap and accessible supplements, a new Massachusetts General Hospital study indicates.

“Our results suggests that we may have an opportunity in the public health arena to influence the opioid epidemic,” said Dr. David Fisher, director of the MGH Cancer Center’s melanoma program and an author of the study published Friday.

Fisher and his colleagues found that vitamin D deficiency strongly increases the craving for opioids, potentially putting people at a higher risk for addiction.

In one arm of the study, normal lab mice were compared with mice that were deficient in vitamin D. When the mice were conditioned with small doses of morphine, those with the deficiency continued seeking out the drug. That behavior was less common in the non-deficient mice. When vitamin D levels were corrected in mice, their opioid responses returned to normal, according to the study.

“The vitamin D level is regulating the behavioral response to opiates, and this appears to be an evolutionary pathway,” Fisher told the Herald.