OT Bi-Polar/Autism/Omega 3s

[Guest guest]

There have been some recent posts re bi-polar & autism & nutritional

intervention, so I thought some of you might be interested in the

following from the FEAT newsletter (www.feat.org).

" On Omega 3's & Autism & Stoll's Book

Stoll is the physician who published the study showing positive

effects with Omega 3 treatment on bipolar disorder in the Archives of

General Psychiatry, which is one of the two two journals of

psychiatry in America. I've just discovered that he has published a

book for lay people, and am ordering it today. My writing partner,

Ratey, tells me that Stoll is now conducting clinical trials

delivering intravenous Omega 3s to children with autism. (I haven't

fact-checked this, and these things can suffer in the translation,

so do take this with a grain of salt.) Probably most of you know

that several epidemiological studies have linked autism to bipolar

disorder in families. My understanding is that this connection is now

widely accepted. Again: I haven't called up autism researchers around

the country to confirm this impression. Rather, two major researchers

have told me that they believe this correlation is now widely

accepted! I'm including the abstract from the Archives study; after

that is the Amazon.com write-up of the book.

Omega 3 Fatty Acids in Bipolar Disorder

A Preliminary Double-blind, Placebo-Controlled Trial

L. Stoll, MD; W. Emanuel Severus, MD, PhD; P. Freeman,

MD; Rueter; Holly A. Zboyan; Eli Diamond; K. Cress,

MD; B. Marangell, MD

Background: 3 Fatty acids may inhibit neuro nalsignal transduction

pathways in a manner similar to that of lithium carbonate and

valproate, 2 effective treatments for bipolar disorder. The present

study was performed to examine whether 3 fatty acids also exhibit

mood-stabilizing properties in bipolar disorder. Methods: A 4-month,

double-blind, placebo-controlled study, comparing 3 fatty acids (9.6

g/d) vs placebo (olive oil), in addition to usual treatment, in 30

patients with bipolar disorder.

Results: A Kaplan-Meier survival analysis of the cohort found that the

3 fatty acid patient group had a significantly longer period of

remission than the placebo group (P=.002; Mantel-). In addition,

for nearly every other outcome measure, the 3 fatty acid group

performed better than the placebo group.

Conclusion: 3 Fatty acids were well tolerated and improved the short-

term course of illness in this preliminary study of patients with

bipolar disorder.

Arch Gen Psychiatry. 1999;56:407-412

Full text available at:

http://www.ama-assn.org/sci-

pubs/journals/most/recent/issues/psyc/yoa8185.htm "