By John Cannell, Vitamin D Council

An important new study supporting the vitamin D theory of autism spectrum disorders was published on June 14, 2014 in The Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders.

In this study, Dr. Eva Kočovská and colleagues of the University of Gothenburg in Sweden, together with senior author Christopher Gillberg of the Gillberg Neuropsychiatric Institute, conducted the first-ever family study of vitamin D levels in individuals with autism to the levels of their unaffected siblings, parents, and a typically developing, unrelated control group.

The study was conducted in the Faroe Islands, north of Scotland. There is a limited amount of sunshine there, but the people eat a lot of fish, which is relatively abundant in vitamin D.

The authors selected 67 young adults diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder aged 15 to 24 years old — which was the entire population of autistic individuals within this age range on the island. This study was the first complete sample of vitamin D levels in an ASD population.

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