Study Reveals, Omega-3 Fish Oil Has No Effects On Depression

Feb, 2022 - By WMR

Research consisting around 20,000 subjects and a five-year follow-up discovered no changes in long-term mood swings in subjects taking fish oil supplement and a placebo

A study lead by a team of scientists from Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) and Brigham and Women’s Hospital (BWH) found no changes in long-term mood changes in those taking omegr-3 fish oil supplement and a placebo. The study published in the journal JAMA on December 2021, involved 20,000 subjects and a five year follow up of subjects.

The clinical trial studied the long-term effects of omega-e supplements on mood, instead of severe clinical depression. In order to create a meaningful data, the scientists enrolled 18,353 subjects for this new research. The subjects were of age 50 years and above with zero signs of depression during the recruitment. The scientists divided subjects into two groups. One group received marine derived omega-3 supplement named as Omacor (containing 465 mg EPA and 375 mg of DHA). While the other group received a placebo. The team followed the subjects for five years, and used two measures to track depression among the cohort. The two measures included study of clinically diagnosed episodes of depression and yearly questionaries and self-reported long-term changes in mood of the subjects.

The results of this study found no difference between omega-3 and placebo group, after studying the mood scores over time. The team found small increase in episodes of depression in omega-3 group of subjects in comparison with the placebo group. The scientists highlighted that this study did not implement that omega-3 supplements were responsible for the increase in the depression episodes. The team suggested that as the mood scores stayed stable, the omega-3 supplements had neutral effect on the cohort over the time. Overall the study revealed that the omega-1 with EPA and DHA has no benefits over mood changes or preventing depression.