BRIEF RESEARCH REPORT article
Front. Psychiatry
Sec. ADHD
Volume 16 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fpsyt.2025.1646885
This article is part of the Research TopicAssessment and Intervention for Children and Adolescents Affected by Neurodevelopmental DisordersView all articles
Serum Levels of Fat-Soluble Vitamins in Children with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder and Relationship with Symptom Subtypes
Provisionally accepted
- Department of Child Health Care, Wuhan Children's Hospital, Wuhan, China
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Objective：To evaluate serum vitamin A (VA), D (VD), and E (VE) levels in children with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and their association with ADHD symptoms. Methods：A total of 657 children aged 4–10 years were enrolled, including 219 ADHD cases (100 inattentive, 14 hyperactive-impulsive, 105 combined subtypes) and 438 healthy controls. Serum VA, VD (D2, D3, total VD), and VE levels were detected via high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC); ADHD clinical symptoms were assessed using the Weiss Functional Deficit Rating Scale (WFIRS). Results：Serum levels in the ADHD group were significantly lower than controls (all P<0.001): VA (330.39±76.84 vs. control ng/ml), total VD (24.58±7.34 vs. control ng/ml), VD2 (2.03±3.23 vs. control ng/ml), VD3 (22.54±7.02 vs. control ng/ml), and VE (9722.09±2271.72 vs. control ng/ml). Spearman analysis showed VE was negatively correlated with total ADHD functional deficit score (r=-0.197, P<0.05), and VA was positively correlated with school learning dimension score (r=0.220, P<0.05). In ADHD subtypes, inattentive/combined types had lower VD3, total VD, and VA (P<0.05) vs. controls, while hyperactive-impulsive type had lower total VD and VA (P<0.05). Conclusion：Fat-soluble vitamin levels correlate with ADHD prevalence, subtype symptoms, and functional deficits; VA/VD/VE supplementation may be an ADHD adjuvant treatment, but causality requires verification via prospective studies.
Keywords: attention deficit hyperactivity disorder1, fat-soluble vitamins2, Vitamin A3, vitaminD4, vitamin E5
Received: 14 Jun 2025; Accepted: 09 Oct 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Li, Gu and Chen. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Yan Chen, flyyichen@126.com
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