Vitamin D status of psychiatric inpatients at a community teaching hospital in the Midwest.

Background: Vitamin D deficiency is a re-emerging epidemic in North America. It is increasingly linked to the pathology of cognition and mental illness and is also common in psychiatric patients.

Aims: This study was designed to determine the prevalence of vitamin D deficiency among psychiatric inpatients in Kansas City, to explore the association between vitamin D status and clinical characteristics, and to identify the association of medical problems related to vitamin D deficiency in mental illness.