Depressives May Benefit From Omgea-3 Fatty Acid Supplements: Study

In a meta-analysis that studied the advantages of taking Omega-3 polyunsaturated fatty acid (PUFA) supplements, scientists find that patients of major depressive disorder (MDD) can get cured.

When researchers led by Roel J. T. Mocking from the Program of Mood Disorders, Department of Psychiatry at the University of Amsterdam conducted 13 studies on 1,233 participants, they found that people taking EPA (eicosapentaenoic acid) and DHA (docosahexaenoic acid) Omega-3 PUFA supplements underwent an improvement in their depressive symptoms.

The greatest reduction was found in patients who ingested EPA and DHA omega-3 PUFA supplements along with antidepressants.

"This new meta-analysis nuances earlier research on the importance of long chain omega-3s in MDD," Mocking said.

However, more trials need to be taken for the use of antidepressants.

"Future precision/personalized medicine trials should establish whether possible interactions between EPA and antidepressants could provide targets to improve antidepressant response and its prediction," the authors wrote. "Nevertheless, potential long-term biochemical side effects of high-dosed add-on EPA supplementation should be carefully monitored."

The findings come after a recent study published in The Journal of Clinical Psychiatry  examined the links between omega-3 PUFA supplements and depression.

Depressives who already showed high levels of omega-3 in their bodies got benefitted by ingesting Omega-3 PUFA supplements along with antidepressants.

"We found that people with higher levels of omega-3 in their blood may benefit more from additional omega-3, in the form of supplements, than those whose blood levels of the fatty acids were lower at the outset," psychiatry professor and lead investigator Robert M. Carney said. "Because depression is linked to heart attacks and sudden cardiac death in patients with cardiovascular disease, we have been trying to figure out how best to improve depression in these patients. These findings offer potential answers for a very significant problem."

The study was published in the March 15, 2016 issue of the journal Translational Psychiatry.