Since my last post on Omega 3 Oils and anxiety I have been continuing my research and I have found some more useful information. One study found that supplementing with over a gram of EPA a day was as good as a SSRI for depression, but only really worked on patients that had depression (unipolar) without anxiety. For patients with anxiety and depression the omega 3 supplement was no better than a placebo or dummy pill.
This is interesting as it suggests that omega 3 oil is not the answer some thought it was. This is at odds with a reasonable amount of literature (but perhaps not much hard science) that suggested omega 3, and EPA in particular was a useful supplement for anxious people. Certainly some suppliers of high strength fish oils state on their websites that their product is a potential treatment for anxiety.
So should anxiety sufferers abandon Omega 3 and look elsewhere for nutritional solutions to anxiety? Not necessarily. The above mentioned study focussed on depressed patients over just two months. Others have hypothesised that treatment with omega 3s needs to be ongoing, but that improvements would show after three to six months. Could it be that the patients with both anxiety and depression needed more than two months? After all, omega 3s are the building blocks for important parts of our brain and nervous system, and years of neglect can’t be remedied in a day.
So I would still suggest investigating Omega 3 supplementation as a potential anti-anxiety supplement. The medical establishment does not fully understand the role of fish oils and omega 3s.
anxiety and depression may have many causes in different people.
these are both complex phenomena which may be a clinical biochemical problem,
or symptoms of each other. for instance depression reduces function that causes anxiety about the future ,etc…
or anxiety causes a person to stay at home which causes depression ,etc..
if fish oils have a significant role in the functioning of brain tissue, they may
help some types of anxiety and not others.