The Relationship between Vitamin D Deficiency and Chronic Pain: Systematic Review

Abstract

Objectives: To gather and assess current studies on how a lack of vitamin D relates to chronic pain. Methods: A total of 632 pertinent publications were found after a comprehensive search across four databases. 34 full-text publications were examined after duplicates were eliminated using Rayyan QCRI and relevance was checked; eight studies finally satisfied the requirements for inclusion. Results: We included eight studies with a total of 357,366 participants, and 166,565 (46.6%) were males. The prevalence of vitamin D deficiency ranged from 1.5% to 82.3% in patients with chronic pain. Many people with chronic pain have low levels of vitamin D, but it's not clear if this deficiency causes the pain. In some groups, lower vitamin D levels were linked to more severe pain, possibly because of inflammation shown by higher inflammatory markers in certain cases. However, results have been mixed, with some studies finding no direct connection between vitamin D levels and ongoing chronic pain. These findings emphasize the importance of more research to understand how vitamin D affects chronic pain and whether supplements could be a potential treatment. Conclusion: This review highlights a potential link between vitamin D deficiency and chronic pain, especially in cases of widespread musculoskeletal pain. While it's not definitively proven that vitamin D deficiency causes this pain, it seems to make it worse for some groups of people, possibly by triggering inflammation. Checking vitamin D levels in patients with chronic pain could be a helpful part of their treatment plan. Future studies should aim to conduct thorough and long-term research to better understand how vitamin D deficiency and chronic pain are connected and evaluate the effectiveness of supplementation as a treatment option.