A fishy cure for PTSD

Posted By Thomas E. Ricks Friday, October 9, 2009 - 2:47 PM Share

I didn't know about this until the other day when a neighbor mentioned it, but apparently there is an extensive literature and ongoing research about fish oil being good for lessening the impact of PTSD, or even of deterring it, if taken earlier.

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NORWEGIAN SHOOTER

7:12 PM ET

October 9, 2009

Nice picture as this post is DOA as well

Stick to what you know, Tom.

"Extensive" link didn't mention fish oil. "Ongoing" is from a press release website and the study was about substance abuse, not PTSD. "Research" is currently recruiting patients, they want 40 people, and the study won't end until 2011. "Literature" is the only real study (PubMed) result you cite, and they weren't that good:

Six patients entered the study. Four patients completed the trial. Two patients dropped out within the first 3–4 weeks: one man who “felt no change” and thus refused to continue and one woman who complained of “feeling greasy all over”.
Psychiatric symptoms, such as hostility, interpersonal sensitivity, somatization, depression, anxiety, phobia, obsession, paranoia, and psychoticism were evaluated. At completion, all the mean symptoms were unchanged as compared with the baseline symptoms. Assessed in terms of individual scores, three patients showed mild to moderate tendencies towards worsening in almost all items, and the remaining patient showed no change.
The only statistically significant change was a marked worsening of the avoidance subscale of the IES in all three of the four patients who demonstrated a general tendency towards worsening scores on all scales. The remaining patient was unchanged.
At completion, the specifically targeted anger and hostility symptoms remained unchanged in both questionnaires.

And since the study title was

Possible deleterious effects of adjunctive omega-3 fatty acids in post-traumatic stress disorder patients

either you didn't even read the title or don't know what "deleterious" means. Sorry, but this was really bad.

Let me guess, your neighbor is into alternative medicine, right?

TOM RICKS

9:17 PM ET

October 9, 2009

NorSho, are you sure?

Are you sure you Norwegians aren't just trying to keep all the fish oil for your own selves?
Cheers,
Tom

NORWEGIAN SHOOTER

4:53 AM ET

October 10, 2009

Nor(th)Sho(re) might work, but it sounds like NorCal

I'll take this as a non-denial confirmation.

GRANT

12:31 AM ET

October 10, 2009

Interesting area of study,

Interesting area of study, but for the fish example the extremely small samples (six subjects in the government study and 13 in the non-government one) means that we shouldn't treat it as anything more than interesting until it is tested in with a considerably larger group of at least several hundred.

JBMOORE61

7:35 AM ET

October 10, 2009

Methylene blue for head injuries

There is some interesting research showing that professional athletes suffer extensive brain damage from head injuries. Researchers are seeing tau protein tangles in specific brain regions. Since British researchers have discovered that methylene blue dissolves tau protein tangles (the proper biomedical term used to be protein inclusions, but who knows about brain specialists), and methylene blue is a very cheap drug with the only bad side effect being making the whites of the eyes blue, it might behoove veterans who've suffered concussions or brain injury from IEDs to look at this treatment. As far as fish oil helping PTSD, if the first commentator is correct, the study was a failure. Then again, mercury causes brain damage and fish oils are derived from tuna and other top predators, so contaminants are concentrated in their bodies and products derived from their bodies. It is highly likely that mercury poisoning will cure PTSD by killing neurons, but does one want to be cured by killing one's brain that way? The acceptable way of killing neurons and relieving PTSD symptoms in the past is chronic alcoholism.