Schizophrenia treated by 6 months of Omega-3 – RCT Nov 2015

A randomized controlled study of the efficacy of six-month supplementation with concentrated fish oil rich in omega-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids in first episode schizophrenia

Journal of Psychiatric Research. online 25 November 2015, doi:10.1016/j.jpsychires.2015.11.013
Tomasz Pawełczyka, tomasz.pawelczyk at umed.lodz.pl, , Marta Grancow-Grabkab, , Magdalena Kotlicka-Antczaka, , Elżbieta Trafalskac, , Agnieszka Pawełczyka,

Short-term clinical trials of omega-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids (n-3 PUFA) as add-on therapy in patients with schizophrenia revealed mixed results. The majority of these studies used an 8- to 12-week intervention based on ethyl-eicosapentaenoic acid. A randomized placebo-controlled trial was designed to compare the efficacy of 26-week intervention, composed of either 2.2 g/day of n-3 PUFA, or olive oil placebo, with regard to symptom severity in first-episode schizophrenia patients. Seventy-one patients (aged 16-35) were enrolled in the study and randomly assigned to the study arms. The primary outcome measure of the clinical evaluation was schizophrenia symptom severity change measured by the Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale (PANSS). Mixed models repeated measures analysis revealed significant differences between the study arms regarding total PANSS score change favouring n-3 PUFA (p = 0.016; effect size (ES) = 0.29).
A fifty-percent improvement in symptom severity was achieved significantly more frequently in the n-3 PUFA group than in the placebo group (69.4 vs 40.0%; p=0.017).
N-3 PUFA intervention was also associated with an improvement in general psychopathology, measured by means of

• PANSS (p=0.009; ES = 0.32),
• depressive symptoms (p=0.006; ES = 0.34), the
• level of functioning (p=0.01; ES = 0.31) and
• clinical global impression (p=0.046; ES = 0.29).

The findings suggest that 6-month intervention with n-3 PUFA may be a valuable add-on therapy able to decrease the intensity of symptoms and improve the level of functioning in first-episode schizophrenia patients.

PNSS from the web

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See also VitaminDWiki

Items in BOTH the categories Cognition and Omega-3

Overview Schizophrenia and Vitamin D contains the following summary
14 reasons to think that schizophrenia is associated with low vitamin D
1) 97% of patients with schizophrenia are vitamin D deficient
2) Schizophrenia varies with latitude (UVB) by 10X (controversy)
3) Schizophrenia is more common in those with dark skin (when away from the equator)
4) Schizophrenia is associated with low natal vitamin D
5) Schizophrenia has been increasing around the world when vitamin D has been decreasing (controversy)
6) Schizophrenia is associated with low birth rate, which is associated with low vitamin D
7) Schizophrenia is associated with Autism which is associated with low vitamin D
8) Schizophrenia Bulletin Editorial (Jan 2014) speculated that Vitamin D could be a major player
9) Schizophrenia 2X more likely if low vitamin D - meta-analysis
10) Schizophrenia increased 40 % for Spring births after Danes stopped vitamin D fortification
11) Schizophrenia is associated with season of birth
12) Schizophrenia is associated with poor Vitamin D Receptor genes
13) Schizophrenia risk is decreased if give Vitamin D after birth
14) Schizophrenia symptoms reduced when Vitamin D levels are restored
Note: Omega-3 increases Vitamin D generated by the Paracrin system