Nociception: The roles of vitamin D

Abstract

Objective: to carry out a systematic computer-assisted analysis of scientific literature on on the relationships between the effects of vitamin and nociception (including the impact of vitamin D deficiency on the development of pain syndrome. Material and methods. For the query "(pain OR nociception) AND (vitamin D OR cholecalciferol OR VITD OR CALCITRIOL OR HYDROXYVITAMIN OR DIHYDROXYVITAMIN OR ALPHACALCIDOL)", 2318 references, including 77 references on alpha-calcidol, were found in the biomedical publications database PubMed. The computer-assisted analysis of this array of publications was carried out using the current big data analysis methods developed within the topological and metric approaches to recognition/classification problems. Result and discussion. A systematic computer-assisted text analysis of 2318 studies on the relationships between nociception and vitamin D showed that the analgesic effects of the vitamin are by anti-inflammatory action and the regulation of serotonergic, dopaminergic, and opioidergic neurotransmission. The lower blood levels of the major vitamin D metabolite 25 (OH)D is a risk factor for decreased pain threshold in myalgia, fibromyalgia, arthralgia, dorsalgia, and a number of neuralgias. Conclusion. In patients with impaired renal conversion of active vitamin D metabolites (especially in the elderly), the efficacy of cholecalciferol- based drugs is reduced, which makes it necessary to use the active forms of vitamin D.