By IANS
Melbourne : A daily dose of fish oil may help prevent the risk of developing schizophrenia in young people, says a new study presented at a conference of the World Psychiatry Association here Thursday.
The new research carried out in Austria looked at a group of 81 people, all between 15 and 25 years, and the scientists treated them with omega-3 fatty acids. They gave them each about 1.5 gram of fish oil a day.
Fatty acids found in fish oil are already considered to be good for the heart and other ailments.
In an interview with Radio Australia, the lead scientist of the study Paul Amminger said that the research found quite a remarkable difference in the group which was taking fish oil compared to the group not taking oil, in terms of developing the signs of schizophrenia.
Schizophrenia is a severe, lifelong brain disorder. People who have it may hear voices or see things that aren’t there or believe that others are reading or controlling their minds.
In men, symptoms usually start in their adolescence and early 20s, while these symptoms appear in the mid-20s to early 30s in women.
“The risk in the placebo group (which was given the medicine for the test) was seven times as high to develop psychosis,” Amminger was quoted as saying by the online edition of ABC News.
“I think probably the reason why we saw this quite large effect is that if you have a treatment, even a benign treatment, early in the phase of a disorder, your effects are probably much better than later in this stage,” he said.
“It’s possible to identify young people who are at risk of developing schizophrenia, because they experience brief hallucinations or delusions. If they’re left untreated, typically around one-third go on to develop a psychotic disorder,” he said.
Psychosis is a treatable mental condition that reflects a disturbance in brain functioning.
“But if they are treated using anti-psychotic drugs they often suffer severe side effects.”
The new research has, however, highlighted a potentially safer way of treating those vulnerable to developing schizophrenia, the researcher added.