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Researchers from Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons, New York and The National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism sought to determine if greater seafood consumption, a measure of omega-3 fatty acid intake, is associated with lower prevalence rates of bipolar disorder in community samples. Epidemiological studies using linear and nonlinear regression analyses were used to compare prevalence data of bipolar disorder to differences in apparent seafood consumption. Results showed that greater seafood consumption predicted lower lifetime prevalence rates of bipolar I disorder, bipolar II disorder, and bipolar spectrum disorder. Bipolar II disorder and bipolar spectrum disorder had an apparent vulnerability threshold below 50 lb of seafood/person/year. Interestingly enough, there was also no correlation between lifetime prevalence rates of schizophrenia and seafood consumption. This suggests a specificity to affective disorders.
These data describe a robust correlational relationship between greater seafood consumption and lower prevalence rates of bipolar disorders and provide a cross-national context for understanding ongoing clinical intervention trials of omega-3 fatty acids in bipolar disorders.
Identification of nutritional factors that correlate with prevalence rates of psychiatric disorders might also provide new strategies for treatment and prevention. Omega-3 essential fatty acids, specifically docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) and eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA), are important candidates in the study of nutritional insufficiencies that may increase the risk of suffering psychiatric disorders. DHA in particular is selectively concentrated in synaptic membranes, comprising 20% of the phospholipid fatty acids, but this and other omega-3 fatty acids cannot be made de novo. Adequate dietary intakes of DHA are also clearly important for optimal neuronal development and function during infancy. Optimal synaptic membrane concentrations of DHA appear to be necessary to several mechanisms implicated in the pathophysiology of bipolar disorders, including phosphoinositol turnover. Seafood and fish are rich dietary sources of both EPA and DHA.
There have been a number of studies over the last few years that have evaluated omega-3 fatty acids and bipolar disorder and there seems to be more than a casual relationship as discussed in this latest study.
Medline search for Fish Oil and Bipolar Disorder
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