Omega-3 fatty acids (fish-oil) and depression-related cognition in healthy volunteers

Abstract

Omega-3 polyunsaturated fatty acid (n-3 PUFA) supplementation may be beneficial in the treatment of several psychiatric disorders, including depression. A small number of studies have suggested that there may also be cognitive and mood effects in healthy samples. The purpose of the present study was to investigate the effects of n-3 PUFA on depressionrelevant cognitive functioning in healthy individuals. Fifty-four healthy university students were randomized to receive either n-3 PUFA supplements or placebo for 4 weeks in a double-blind design. The test battery included measures of cognitive reactivity, attention, response inhibition, facial emotion recognition, memory and risky decision-making. Results showed few effects of n-3 PUFAs on cognition and mood states. The n-3 PUFA group made fewer risk-averse decisions than the placebo group. This difference appeared only in non-normative trials of the decision-making test, and was not accompanied by increased impulsiveness. N-3 PUFAs improved scores on the control/perfectionism scale of the cognitive reactivity measure. No effects were found on the other cognitive tasks and no consistent effects on mood were observed. The present findings indicate that n-3 PUFA supplementation may have a selective effect on risky decision making in healthy volunteers, which is unrelated to impulsiveness.

Omega-3 Fatty Acids and Cognitive Behavior

“…0.8 g/day in Fontani et al (2005a) compared to 0.25 g/day in Antypa et al (2009) and 0.24 g/day in Karr et al (2012)). Subsequent research has compared DHA-rich fish oil to EPA-rich fish oil to better understand whether the DHA or EPA content moderates differences in cognitive performance.…”

“…Further, fish oil did not influence cognitive performance across a range of tasks measuring response inhibition, facial expression recognition, and memory. Fish oil did increase risk-seeking decision-making in gains only trials of a gambling task as well as reaction time in both gains-only and losses-only trials relative to placebo, together suggesting that omega-3 PUFA supplementation increased willingness to make calculated risks rather than increased impulsiveness (Antypa et al, 2009). However, the risk-based decision-making task was only administered after supplementation, making it impossible to determine whether fish oil and olive oil differentially changed risk taking pre-to post-supplementation.…”

Omega-3 fatty acids and stress-induced changes to mood and cognition in healthy individuals

“…They found increased feelings of vigor and reduced feelings of anger, anxiety, fear, depression, and confusion in the n-3 PUFA group compared to placebo (Fontani et al, 2005a,b). However, a more recent study found that 2.3 g/day n-3 PUFA (approximately 7:1 EPA:DHA) reduced feelings of POMS fatigue only (Antypa et al, 2009).…”

Nutra-ergonomics: influence of nutrition on physical employment standards and the health of workers

“…Omega-3 fatty acid supplementations containing EPA and DHA in varying amounts have been reported to improve visual attention and information processing speed in some (Fontani et al 2005(Fontani et al , 2009) but not all (Antypa et al 2009;Jackson et al 2012) studies. De Groot et al (2007) found higher levels of AA were associated with a faster learning curve on the Stroop task measuring general speed of information processing; however, the opposite was found with DHA.…”