Omega-3 may help reduce the risk of developing psychosis and psychiatric disorders, a study of 81 young people at high risk of developing schizophrenia shows.
The participants were randomly split into two groups, one group received omega-3 daily for 12 weeks, while the other received a placebo. Seven years after the experiment, the researchers found that 9.8 per cent of the omega-3 group (four out 41) developed psychosis, during a 12 month monitoring period, compared to 40 per cent (16 out of 40) in the placebo group.
Additionally the placebo group showed a higher overall incidence of other psychiatric disorders.
A possible limitation of this study is the sample size, which is not sufficiently large to allow further analysis of subgroups.
Original research paper published in Nature Communications on August 11, 2015.
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