Can fish oil prevent psychosis?

A small new study offers preliminary evidence that fish oil supplements can prevent psychosis among young people at high risk for the condition, even seven years after taking the capsules.

The results hold out hope of helping young people with mental illness remain healthy and functional by taking safe and inexpensive supplements, authors say.

In the study, half of participants were randomly assigned to take fish oil capsules for 12 weeks, while half were given placebos. Ten percent of young people who took fish oil developed psychosis, a serious condition in which people lose touch with reality, compared with 40% who were given placebos, according to the study of 81 people, ages 13 to 25. Researchers followed patients for nearly seven years.

Participants in the study had a very high risk of psychosis, such as because they had a close relative with a psychotic disorder or because they were already experiencing delusions, hallucinations or increased suspiciousness. The study, presented Sunday at the Early Psychosis Conference in Tokyo, was led by Paul Amminger and Patrick McGorry of Australia's University of Melbourne and Monika Schlogelhofer of the Medical University of Vienna in Austria.

Doctors hope to prevent young people from developing full-blown psychosis – or to help them recover quickly after a first psychotic break – because of encouraging research that suggests early intervention can halt the deterioration so often seen in schizophrenia, says Jeffrey Lieberman, chairman of psychiatry at Columbia University Medical Center in New York, who wasn't involved in the study.

For example, research suggests that cognitive behavioral therapy – in which people learn coping strategies to handle stress – can cut the risk of psychosis among high-risk patients in half, says Robert Heinssen of the National Institute of Mental Health.

While Heinssen says the new results are exciting, he says they need to be confirmed by independent researchers to make sure that they aren't just a fluke.

Two groups of researchers – one from Australia, Asia and Europe and one from the National Institute of Mental Health – are running their own trials. Results from the international group are scheduled to release their results at a conference in March.

If those results are positive, Heinssen says it could lead doctors to begin prescribing fish oil pills. The capsules are considered very safe, without the serious side effects caused by antipsychotic medications.

Yet Lieberman says the new results seem too good to be true. He says it's hard to believe that taking fish oil for just 12 weeks could protect people from psychosis seven years later.

Heinssen says the new results are impressive enough that doctors should at least discuss the study with their patients, giving them the option of trying fish oil.

Fish oil contains omega-3 fatty acids, which have been studied as a way to reduce the risk of dementia and heart disease. Omega-3 fatty acids are found in fatty fish, such as salmon.

Patients in the study received four capsules a day with two types of omega-3 fatty acids -- 700 milligrams of EPA and 480 milligrams of DHA – as well as 7.6 milligrams of vitamin E.