Saudi RCT, 64 people, 500 mg EPA + 250 mg DHA, three months: “Significant improvements were observed in the intervention group regarding stress, anxiety, depression, sleep quality, and memory outcomes (p < 0.001 for PSS, GAD-7, PHQ-9, PSQI, and EMQ)”
I’m not sure that we can trust the above when we have VITAL-DEP that found increased risk of depression: US RCT, 18,353 people, 465 mg EPA + 375 mg DHA, “median treatment duration was 5.3 years”.
Unless 50% DHA and DHA <= 250 mg is good (Saudi) but EPA/DHA <= 2 OR DHA > 250 mg (VITAL-DEP) is bad. Would be amazing to have a trial of EPA only vs DHA only vs EPA+DHA 1:1…
remission occurred at 36 weeks in 30 of 94 ω-3 recipients (31.9%) vs 37 of 90 (41.1%) placebo recipients (all differences were nonsignificant)
EPA plus DHA levels expressed by the ω-3 index rose by a mean (SD) of 4.33% (1.54%) and 4.88% (2.38%) at 12 and 36 weeks, respectively, in the ω-3 arm, confirming adherence.
Our analysis showed no evidence that the ω-3 index moderated treatment efficacy for pediatric MDD.
In this RCT that included help-seeking children and adolescents with moderate-to-severe MDD receiving professional multimodal treatment, we found no evidence that ω-3 supplementation provided benefit compared with placebo. Furthermore, ω-3 supplementation neither reduced antidepressant use nor conferred protection against suicidality.
So at least here in a pediatric setting, omega 3 supplementation doesn’t cause depression (although remission rate was higher in the placebo group… but not statistically significant) like in VITAL-DEP despite 500 mg DHA but with 2x EPA.
Right - pediatric setting. The physiology of a still developing body is different enough, that I usually don’t relate it to my own health. As a matter of fact, at 67, I am soon in another physiological state, where a ton of stuff that is relevant to 25-55 year olds stops being relevant to me (including drug and supplement dosing and effect). But of course it’s interesting to those who have kids. I remember when I was 8-12 years old and would visit my maternal grandfather at his place in the countryside, he would always be telling me to eat fish (which was frequently served by my grandmother especially for me and my brother) “because it is good for the brain”. That was back in the 60’s. When thinking back I’m rather surprised, because I thought the idea that eating fish is good for the developing brain was a much later phenomenon, but apparently not (or my grandfather thought it up by himself, I don’t know).
My grandma told me that her parents were already telling her that about cod liver oil. Gemini tells me that the belief that fish is good for brain health started in the mid 1800s based on a scientific error.
