From Dr. Andrew L. Stoll’s book: The Omega-3 Connection
The long-term treatment of patients with bipolar disorder relies on the so-called mood stabilizers such as lithium and valproate. These often produce dramatically good results long term and have saved thousands of lives. Unfortunately, patients using lithium often experience weight gain, tremors, increased urination, drowsiness, and acne… As a psychopharmacologist (a psychiatrist specializing in medication treatments) and researcher with responsibility for treating these desperately ill people, my mandate was clear: to find newer medications with fewer side effects that worked as well as or better than the ones already in use, and to increase our understanding of the disorder… Working with the German researcher W. Emanuel Severus, M.D., I started the hunt for a better treatment in 1993. Our strategy was to conduct extensive computer searches of medical research papers to identify substances whose biochemical properties were similar to the standard mood stabilizers, lithium and valproate. Reviewing hundreds of papers in search of a candidate molecule (one that had never been used in psychiatric disorders), we pulled up one match time and again: omega-3 fatty acids, or common fish oil!…
Our subsequent clinical study, ultimately published in The Archives of General Psychiatry, suggested that these safe and natural oils had therapeutic value in the treatment of bipolar disorder. In this one study, looking at thirty patients over four months, omega-3 fatty acids, used alone or with other medications, enabled a few seemingly incurable patients to lead normal lives and enhanced mood stability for those already gaining some benefit from other medications. Omega-3 fatty acids were also safer than valproate and lithium: they had few side effects, and, in my practice, at least, they have become one of the most frequently used “medications” for patients with mood disorders. More…
Copyright ©2001 by Andrew L. Stoll, M.D.
