It is known that many patients with various inflammatory diseases, including those receiving certain substances belonging to the cytokine family as therapies, can develop depression at a much higher frequency than the general population. For example, patients with type C hepatitis treated with interferon (one of the cytokines) develop a depressive syndrome in 30% of cases.
Omega -3 fatty acids have a long list of beneficial effects, including mainly the reduction of the risk of cardiovascular and cerebrovascular diseases, expressed through the reduction of the blood level of triglycerides, the powerful antioxidant action, the ability to reduce the aggregation of platelets, etc.
Omega-3s are also known to possess important anti- inflammatory characteristics and, probably, also important antidepressant properties , already underlined by numerous studies.
A group of researchers from the Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology & Neuroscience at King’s College London (UK), published the results of a study in the famous journal Biological Psychiatry in which the efficacy of Omega-3 fatty acids was evaluated in prevent depression in patients with type C hepatitis, being treated with interferon.
152 patients with hepatitis C were included in the study, then randomly divided into three groups.
The first group received a 2-week treatment with EPA (eicosapentaenoic acid); the second a 2-week treatment with DHA (docosahexaenoic acid) and the third a 2-week treatment with placebo (ie with an inert substance with the same shape and taste as the previous two).
EPA and DHA are the two main fatty acids contained in fish oil. The study was carried out in double blind, i.e. neither the researchers nor the patients knew which active substances were and which placebo, in order to eliminate the influences on the results potentially deriving from the expectations of patients and researchers.
After 2 weeks of supplementary treatment, all patients underwent 24 weeks of interferon-alpha treatment and were repeatedly evaluated for depressive symptoms.
The researchers found that preventive treatment with EPA was indeed able to reduce the incidence of depression from the potential 30% to the rate of 10% (thus with a reduction rate of approximately 66%).
Treatment with DHA and placebo failed to achieve the same risk reducing effect. Both EPA and DHA treatment, on the other hand, has shown the ability to delay the development of depressive symptoms, without inducing important side effects.
The EPA is considered a kind of endogenous anti-inflammatory and, in a previous work published in the same journal, the same group of researchers had already shown that subjects with low endogenous levels of EPA are more at risk of developing depression. The authors hypothesize that supplementation with EPA can help restore the body’s natural anti-inflammatory capacities, protecting against the development of depression when a predominantly inflammatory pathology takes over.
Although more studies are needed to evaluate the replicability of these findings, the authors state that Omega-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids may be effective in preventing the development of depression., particularly in those patients suffering from diseases with a high inflammatory component.
Source:
Omega-3 Fatty Acids in the Prevention of Interferon-Alpha-Induced Depression: Results from a Randomized, Controlled Trial.
Kuan-Pin Su, Hsueh-Chou Lai, Hui-Ting Yang, Wen-Pang Su, Cheng-Yuan Peng, Jane Pei-Chen Chang, Hui-Chih Chang, Carmine M. Pariante. Biological Psychiatry, 2014; 76 (7): 559 DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.biopsych.2014.01.008
