I subscribe to the Arbor Clinical Nutrition Updates. It is a nice way to slowly learn more about recent nutrition research. A partial subscription is free. Last week’s topic was omega-3 and mood disorders. The update summarized three articles:
1. Appleton KM. et al. Effects of nā3 long-chain polyunsaturated fatty acids on depressed mood: systematic review of published trials. Am J Clin Nutr 2006;84:1308 ā16. This meta-analysis of 12 clinical trials found that omega-3 fats significantly reduced depression.
2. Frangou S. et al. Efficacy of ethyl-eicosapentaenoic acid in bipolar depression: randomised double-blind placebo-controlled study. Br J Psychiatry. 2006 Jan;188:46-50. This experiment found that an omega-3 fat helped persons with bipolar disorder.
3. Hallahan B. et al. Omega-3 fatty acid supplementation in patients with recurrent self-harm: Single-centre double-blind randomised controlled trial. Br J Psychiatry. 2007 Feb;190:118-122. This experiment found that omega-3 fats reduced a depression score.
I recently reviewed an article for the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition that found that omega-3 fats did not reduce depression scores. Unfortunately the article was not accepted for publication. I hope it gets published somewhere else.
you might be interested in Amarin corp. (list stock) and it’s lead product, which is a highly refined for of epa.
https://www.amarincorp.com/page.cfm?pgname=miraxiondev
Miraxion is a semi-synthetic, highly purified (~97%) derivative of (all-cis)-5,8,11,14,17-eicosapentaenoic acid (ethyl-EPA). It is a long chain highly unsaturated fatty acid (often written in short as 20:5n-3 or 20:5Ļ3).
Did they say what kind of depression was helped? Any differences in unipolar vs bipolar? Any specific symptoms that were more affected? (For instance, low motivation, anhedonia, and sadness are all different aspects of depression.)
The studies used composite depression scores; I don’t think that analysis was done.
You have previously blogged on the beneficial effect of Omega 3 on Bone strength and this https://www.nutraingredients-usa.com/news/ng.asp?n=75128-omega-dha-blood-pressure is reporting on the benefits of omega 3 on blood pressure. While there is lots of evidence that omega 3 may be helpful in depression there are also meta analysis like this one https://press.psprings.co.uk/dtb/February/dtbfeb.pdf that are skeptical.
It worries me that some of the meta-analysis are including in their evidence reports that common sense tells us won’t have any chance at all of having an impact.
Is is likely that a body that has been starved of omega 3 since before conception respond in 6 weeks to an amount of DHA less than half the amount most experts think it the daily requirement?
If you are programmed to spend $4000 a day will paying into your bank account $200 correct your overdraft?
Clearly their are nutrional research scientists who think it prossibly will.