Longer-term outcome in the prevention of psychotic disorders by the Vienna omega-3 study.

G Paul Amminger,Claudia M Klier,Miriam R Schäfer,Patrick D Mcgorry,Monika Schlögelhofer

doi:10.1038/ncomms8934

Abstract

Long-chain omega-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFAs) are essential for neural development and function. As key components of brain tissue, omega-3 PUFAs play critical roles in brain development and function, and a lack of these fatty acids has been implicated in a number of mental health conditions over the lifespan, including schizophrenia. We have previously shown that a 12-week intervention with omega-3 PUFAs reduced the risk of progression to psychotic disorder in young people with subthreshold psychotic states for a 12-month period compared with placebo. We have now completed a longer-term follow-up of this randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial, at a median of 6.7 years. Here we show that brief intervention with omega-3 PUFAs reduced both the risk of progression to psychotic disorder and psychiatric morbidity in general in this study. The majority of the individuals from the omega-3 group did not show severe functional impairment and no longer experienced attenuated psychotic symptoms at follow-up.

Highlights

Long-chain omega-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFAs) are essential for neural development and function
Participants were aged 13–25 years at first presentation and met criteria for one or more of the three operationally defined and well-validated groups of risk factors for psychosis proposed by Yung et al.[12]: attenuated positive psychotic symptoms; transient psychosis; and genetic risk plus a decrease in functioning
Eighty-one treatment-seeking individuals were enrolled in the study, with 41 assigned to the omega-3 PUFA group and 40 to the placebo group; all patients were included in the intention-to-treat analysis (Fig. 1)

Summary

Introduction

Long-chain omega-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFAs) are essential for neural development and function. We have previously shown that a 12-week intervention with omega-3 PUFAs reduced the risk of progression to psychotic disorder in young people with subthreshold psychotic states for a 12-month period compared with placebo. We show that brief intervention with omega-3 PUFAs reduced both the risk of progression to psychotic disorder and psychiatric morbidity in general in this study. A recent metaanalysis in 2,502 at-risk individuals found that the cumulative rate of transition to psychosis increased over time, with 18%, 22%, 29% and 36% developing a psychotic disorder by 6 months, 1, 2 and 3 years, respectively[7]. We successfully conducted the first randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial showing that omega-3 PUFAs prevented a first episode of psychotic disorder for up to 1 year after baseline[11]. The overall psychiatric morbidity during the follow-up period was significantly lower in the omega-3 PUFA group

Methods

Results

Conclusion