A study that took seven years, performed by scientists at the University of Melbourne, Australia, discovered that fish oil can halt psychosis. Paul Amminger and his colleagues published their findings in Nature Communications in August.
According to psychiatrist Vaughan Carr, chief of Sydney's Schizophrenia Research Institute, the findings of this research are "extraordinary". However, the psychiatrists added that more independent confirmations of these findings are needed in replicated trials.
Amminger explains that people suffering of schizophrenia may fear their thoughts aren't private, hear voices and lose their ability to experience joy. Statistics shows that around one in 100 people develops the disease. It occurs most often between the ages of 15 and 30. The traditional treatment for schizophrenia consists in antipsychotic medications that can stop the hallucinations. However, the medication also has unpleasant side-effects such as drowsiness and weight gain.
If a diet rich in omega-3 fatty acids could stop psychosis that would be a much easier way to fight the illness. Fish oil doesn't have all these disadvantages of pharmaceutical medication. Some previous studies have already pointed out since the '90s that omega-3 fatty acids found at high concentrations in fish oil are a possible treatment for schizophrenia. At that time, researchers suggested that schizophrenia might be triggered by a deficit of phospholipids in nerve membranes.
Fatty acids are precursors for molecules that protect neurons and for phospholipids. And recently, other studies have found that patients suffering of schizophrenia have about half as much omega-3 in their red blood cell membranes as healthy individuals do. Amminger wondered if a diet rich in fish oil could stop the disease from progressing since schizophrenia often begins in the teen years. His team tested his theory between 2004 and 2007.
Recently, his team tested again the participants in the initial research. According to the latest study, the psychotic symptoms were significantly reduced even at seven years after the 12-week fish oil treatment. The risk of full-blown schizophrenia was reduced by four-fold, which is a really impressive result.
