"Vitamin D supplementation, shown in recent studies to help lower risk of certain cancers, multiple sclerosis, arthritis, and other conditions, may also relieve depression, according to new research. Canadian researchers say the benefit of supplementation may come in creating stores of this vital vitamin in the bloodstream to carry people through the dreary months of winter, when a lack of sunlight may lead to or worsen mood disorders -- most notably seasonal affective disorder, the aptly acronymed SAD that affects some 11 million Americans. Patients with this so-called "winter depression" are advised to treat the condition with a special "light box" that mimics the effects of sunlight during winter months. ...Reinhold Vieth, PhD, a vitamin D researcher at Mt. Sinai Hospital in Toronto... gave patients a questionnaire to gauge their likelihood of depression. Those whose answers suggested a strong possibility of depression were then given supplements containing a daily dose of either 600 or 4,000 international units (IUs) of Vitamin D. They started taking the supplements in summer and continued through the winter. The patients were re-evaluated a year later. With both doses, patients suffering from depression improved as their vitamin D levels increased to at least 40 ng/mL, what some vitamin D researchers recommend as a normal blood level. ...John Cannell, MD, who heads the Vitamin D Council, a group of doctors and researchers who study the effects of this nutrient, is a staff psychiatrist at Atascadero State Hospital, a California psychiatric hospital. 'Basically, what vitamin D does is increase levels of the [chemical] serotonin in the brain," he tells WebMD. Many antidepressant medications work the same way.'" [source http://my.webmd.com/content/article/91/101374.htm]

Studies have shown that Vitamin D can help alleviate certain types of depression, particularly depression related to vitamin deficiencies. But please, please don't call it a "cure." There are no true "cures" for depression, only ways to alleviate symptoms and effects.

My comment is not about the ability to cure depression with vitamin D but the concept that there is "no cure" for depression. This is a continuation of non-workable Freudian psych that has not worked and will never work. Freud was wrong. The state of the art of mental health care is still stuck on diagnosing what is wrong without a clue to fix it. Had Freud gone a bit farther he would have realized we all have crazy thoughts but mentally healthy people process their thoughts differently. The proof is all around us and in everything we do successfully every day. When we do something successfully it is because we process the data correctly. 99% of all depression is of short duration and spontaneously disappears. It's called "getting over it." The chronically depressed have made a habit of focusing on their tragedy, and some of their tragedies are truly that. However, a solution to their problem will not be found by continually replaying the tragedy. All that does is change the biochemistry of the brain until depression becomes that persons truth.

I doubt it for the following reasons: 1) Depression itself is very loosely understood. Stating there is a cure all to something we are still scratching the surface of is reckless. 2) There is no proof that all depression has the same cause, making the likelihood that there is one solution that covers it all very unlikely. 3) So far, depression, as currently diagnosed has not been proven to be curable in the traditional sense. This is complicated by the fact that many of the contributing factors to depression are non-medical. A person who makes bad decisions is going to likely continue on that cycle regardless of medication or supplements. 4) I know way too many depressed people who pop vitamins like no tomorrow and they seem just as depressed.

It can help with many things! Read up about it as you can end up with kidney stones.