In a new study from RCSI University of Medicine and Health Sciences, researchers found that adolescents with higher levels of omega-3 fatty acid in their blood were less likely to develop the psychotic disorder in early adulthood.
This suggests that it may have a preventative effect of reducing the risk of psychosis.
In the study, over 3,800 individuals in Bristol’s Children of the 90s health study were assessed for psychotic disorder, depressive disorder and generalized anxiety disorder at age 17 and at age 24.
During these assessments, blood samples were collected, and the researchers measured the levels of omega-6 fatty acids, which generally increase inflammation in the body, and omega-3 fatty acids, which generally reduce inflammation.
The researchers found that 24-year-olds with psychotic disorder, depressive disorder and generalized anxiety disorder had higher levels of omega-6 than omega-3 fatty acids compared to those without these disorders.
They also found that 24-year-olds with the psychotic disorder had lower levels of DHA, an omega-3 fatty acid typically found in oily fish or dietary supplements, than 24-year-olds without the psychotic disorder.
In a group of over 2,700 individuals who were tracked over time, adolescents with higher levels of DHA at age 17 were 56% less likely to develop psychotic disorder seven years later at age 24.
This suggests that DHA in adolescence may have a potentially preventative effect of reducing the risk of psychosis in early adulthood.
These results remained consistent when accounting for other factors such as sex, body mass index, tobacco smoking and socio-economic status.
The team says these results suggest that enhanced dietary intake of omega-3 fatty acids among adolescents, such as oily fish like mackerel, could prevent some people from developing psychosis in their early twenties.
The results could also raise questions about the link between the development of mental health disorders and omega-6 fatty acids, which are typically found in vegetable oils.
If you care about mental health, please read studies about eating too much sugar may make you have these mental problems and findings of this midlife mental problem is risk factor for Alzheimer’s disease.
For more information about mental disease and your health, please see recent studies about this mental problem second only to age as biggest risk factor for COVID-19 death and results showing that this common mental issue could be a sign of high dementia risk.
The study is published in Translational Psychiatry. One author of the study is Professor David Cotter.
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