Fish Oil Omega-3 Fatty Acids, EPA and DHA, Appear to Delay or Prevent Onset of Psychotic Disorders

by | Feb 24, 2010 | 2010, Brain Health, DHA

Written by Susan Sweeny Johnson, PhD. In a study of 81 young people at risk for psychiatric disorders, the group supplemented with omega-3 products had 5.5 times less chance of becoming psychotic.

Early treatment of adolescents and young adults clinically identified as high risk for developing psychotic disorders such as schizophrenias and bipolar disorder has been shown to delay or prevent the onset of full blown psychoses (1). To date these studies have been done with antipsychotic medication and/or cognitive therapy (2, 3). A few studies have indicated that supplementation of schizophrenic patients with the omega-3 fatty acid eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA) reduces psychotic symptoms (4).

Since use of antipsychotic medicine on young people is controversial, this new study looked at the effect of fish oil supplementation on the onset of psychoses in a population of adolescents and young adults at high risk for psychotic disorders.  Eighty-one individuals were randomly given either fish oil capsules containing 700 mg of eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA) and 480 mg of docosahexaenoic acid  DHA), or the same weight of coconut oil modified to taste like fish oil each day. Psychiatric evaluations performed during the 12 week supplementation period, at 6 months and 12 months. No supplements were taken after the initial 12 weeks.  During the 12 month study, participants could receive antidepressants if necessary.  Participants were removed from the study if they developed clinical psychosis, the end point of the study.

The results indicated that supplementation with fish oil led to 4.9% of the omega-3 group becoming psychotic within the year of the study while use of placebo led to 27.5% of the this control group developing psychosis. (p<0.007)* Seventy-six of the 81 initial participants completed the 12 month study with 81% compliance during the supplementation days.

Because supplementation with fish oil was well tolerated with only mild physical side effects such “fish burps”, while antipsychotic medication causes metabolic changes leading to weight gain and sexual dysfunction, supplementation with omega-3 fish oil appears to be a viable option for treatment of pre-psychotic young people.

In addition, anti-psychotics do not appear to benefit the patient after cessation of treatment while supplementation with omega-3 fish oil shows benefits up to nine months after ceasing supplementation. This interesting effect could be due to neuroprotective properties of the omega-3 fatty acids such as decreasing cell death (apoptosis) and inducing production of antioxidants (5, 6).

Further, larger studies should be done to confirm these findings and explore the mechanism of action of the omega-3 fatty acids.

According to 1990 data, the most recent available, schizophrenia costs the nation $32.5 billion annually. More than 2 million Americans are affected by it in any given year (7).

*p values are a measure of how significant the data is. p<0.05 is considered significant.

Source: Amminger, G. Paul, Miriam R. Schäfer, Konstantinos Papageorgiou, Claudia M. Klier, Sue M. Cotton, Susan M. Harrigan, Andrew Mackinnon, Patrick D. McGorry, and Gregor E. Berger. “Long-chain ω-3 fatty acids for indicated prevention of psychotic disorders: a randomized, placebo-controlled trial.” Archives of general psychiatry 67, no. 2 (2010): 146-154.

© 2010, American Medical Association

Posted February 24, 2010.

References:

  1. Marshall M, Lewis S, Lockwood A, Drake R, Jones P, Croudace T. Association between duration of untreated psychosis and outcome in cohorts of first episode patients: a systematic review. Arch Gen Psychiatry. 2005;62(9):975-983.
  2. McGorry PD, Yung AR, Phillips LJ, Yuen HP, Francey S, Cosgrave EM, Germano D, Bravin J, McDonald T, Blair A, Adlard S, Jackson H. Randomized controlled trial of interventions designed to reduce the risk of progression to first-episode psychosis in a clinical sample with subthreshold symptoms. Arch Gen Psychiatry. 2002;59(10):921-928.
  3. Morrison AP, French P, Walford L, Lewis SW, Kilcommons A, Green J, Parker S, Bentall RP. Cognitive therapy for the prevention of psychosis in people at ultrahigh risk: randomised controlled trial. Br J Psychiatry. 2004;185:291-297.
  4. Peet M, Brind J, Ramchand CN, Shah S, Vankar GK. Two double-blind placebo controlled pilot studies of eicosapentaenoic acid in the treatment of schizophrenia. Schizophr Res. 2001;49(3):243-251.
  5. Mukherjee PK, Marcheselli VL, Barreiro S, Hu J, Bok D, Bazan NG. Neurotrophins enhance retinal pigment epithelial cell survival through neuroprotectin D1 signaling. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2007;104(32):13152-13157.
  6. Farooqui AA, Ong WY, Horrocks LA, Chen P, Farooqui T. Comparison of biochemical effects of statins and fish oil in brain: the battle of the titans. Brain Res Rev. 2007;56(2):443-471.
  7.  See the Healthier You website.