High-Dose Omega-3 Fatty Acid May Improve Attention, Vigilance in Children With ADHD

Taking a high dose of the omega-3 fatty acid eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA) may help to improve attention in youth who have attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and low levels of EPA, suggests astudy published inTranslational Psychiatry.“A deficiency of omega-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids (n-3 PUFAs) may play a role in the pathogenesis of attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD),” wrote Jane Pei-Chen Chang, M.D., of King’s College London and colleagues.Chang and colleagues conducted a 12-week, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial comparing the effects of high-dose EPA with placebo in youth aged 6 to 18 years with ADHD. All participants were either drug na ïve or had not been on medications for the previous six months and had been referred to the Department of Psychiatry at China Medical University Hospital in Taiwan.The participants were randomized into the EPA (1.2 grams per day) group or placebo (1.2 grams per day of soybean oil) group. The researchers assessed the youth on the following four items of the Continuous Performance Test at the beginning and end of the trial: focused attention, impulsivity, sustained attention, and vigilance. They also took blood samples from the youth at the start of the trial and again at week 12 to determine baseline EPA levels and changes to these levels over the course of the study. Of the 103 youth who were randomized to the two groups, 92 completed the 12-week trial.Youth in the EPA group improved more th...
Source: Psychiatr News - Category: Psychiatry Tags: ADHD attention eicosapentaenoic acid impulsivity Jane Pei-Chen Chang omega-3 fatty acids Translational Psychiatry youth Source Type: research