A new, published study of children and adults with MS revealed that individuals with higher vitamin D levels may experience less severe attacks of acute optic neuritis (AON). Younger age, attack severity, and female gender all had an impact on AON recovery. It is estimated that 15 to 20 percent of people with MS experience AON.
Lead author Muhammad Malik, MD, principal investigator Tanua Chitnis, MD, colleagues from the Partners Multiple Sclerosis Center, and fellow researchers studied three groups of patients. The first was composed of 253 adult AON patients and the second was composed of 38 pediatric AON patients; both groups had AON as their initial presenting symptom for MS. The third group was composed of 101 individuals with AON who did not experience AON as their initial symptom. All patients were selected from the Comprehensive Longitudinal Investigation of Multiple Sclerosis at Brigham and Women’s Hospital (CLIMB) Study at the Partners Multiple Sclerosis Center.
Although the authors believe vitamin D plays an important role in AON attack severity, they said that more studies are warranted. This study was published in the journal Neurology.
