Page 54 - Complementary and Alternative Medicine Treatments in Psychiatry

54 | Complementary and Alternative Medicine Treatments in Psychiatry

prophylactic effect against psychosis. Researchers in Austria
treated young patients, aged 13 to 25, who were at ultra-high
risk for psychotic disorder, in a twelve-week, double-blind study.
This was followed by a 40-week monitoring period. The EFA
group received 1.2 grams a day of omega-3 fatty acids. At the end
of the study, among the EFA group only 2 of 41 individuals had
transitioned to psychotic disorder compared to 11 of 40 in the
placebo group (Amminger 2010).

Fatty Acids and Depression

As good as the news has been with EFA treatment of psychotic
disorders, a stream of studies has consistently shown the
effectiveness of omega-3s in the treatment of depression, so
much so that it has become a mainstay therapy in many private
practices and hospitals.
As an example of the effectiveness of EFAs in a broad range of
depressive clients, researchers in Israel reviewed three clinical
trials carried out on a variety of patient populations at Beer
Sheva Mental Health Center. The first tested EPA versus placebo
on 20 unipolar clients with major depression as an adjunct to
antidepressant therapy. The second study treated 28 children,
ages 6–12, with a monotherapy of EPA or placebo. The third
study treated 12 bipolar patients with an open-label, add-on trial
of 1.5 to 2 grams per day of EPA for up to 6 months.
Results were very good across the board. The unipolar group
showed “highly significant benefits” by week three. The child
study showed, again, “highly significant effects of omega-3” on
each of the three rating scales. Of the participants in the bipolar
study, 8 of 10 who completed at least one month of follow-up
achieved a 50% or greater reduction in Hamilton depression
scores within one month. No significant side effects were
reported in any of the studies (Osher 2009).