Antidepressant Drugs Work More Effectively in People Who Consume Fish
New study discovers that growing fatty fish consumption may be one way to enhance the reaction rate among depressed sufferers who do not find antidepressants effective.
Up to 50 percent of sufferers with depression do not react to selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor (SSRI) antidepressant medications.
Earlier researches have recommended there may be an underlying genetic purpose why up to 42% of instances do not react to antidepressant medications. And in 2013, the journal Biological Psychiatry posted an online risk calculator that approximated the likelihood of antidepressant reaction, based on the results of the huge STAR*D antidepressant study.
The scientists behind the new research were analyzing aspects that impact antidepressant non-response when they hit upon a connection between enhanced effectiveness and fish consumption.
Lead investigator Roel Mocking describes the team’s findings:
“We were looking for biological modifications that could describe depression and antidepressant non-reaction, so we mixed two obviously unrelated measures: metabolism of fatty acids and stress hormone regulation. Remarkably, we saw that stressed out sufferers had a modified metabolism of fatty acids, and that this modified metabolism was controlled in a various way by stress hormones.”
The scientists assessed the fatty acid and cortisol (stress hormone) levels of 70 sufferers with depression, evaluating them with readings taken from 51 healthy controls.
The sufferers with depression were then administered a 20 mg dose of an SSRI daily for 6 weeks. Sufferers who did not react to the SSRIs were offered with a gradually enhanced dose of up to 50 mg daily.
Non-responding sufferers maintained to have ‘abnormal fatty acid metabolism’Taking measurements of fatty acid and cortisol ranges throughout the study, the scientists identified that the depressed sufferers who did not react to the antidepressants maintained to have irregular fatty acid metabolism.
Because fatty fish is wealthy in fatty acids, like as omega-3 DHA, the scientists analyzed the fish intake in the diet of the individuals. They identified that the members who ate the minimum fish tended to have the poorest reaction to antidepressant medications, whereas sufferers who had the most fish in their diet plan had the most effective response.
The team reports that individuals who consumed fatty fish a minimum of once a week had a 75% possibility of reacting to antidepressants, while individuals who never consumed fatty fish had only a 23% chance of reacting to them.
“This indicates that the modifications in fatty acid metabolism (and their connection with stress hormone regulation) were connected with future antidepressant reaction,” says Mocking.
He adds:
“Significantly, this connection was connected with eating fatty fish, which is an essential dietary source of omega-3 fatty acids. These results recommend that measures of fatty acid metabolism, and their connection with stress hormone control, might be of use in the clinic as an early indicator of upcoming antidepressant reaction. Moreover, fatty acid metabolism could be affected by eating fish, which may be a way to enhance antidepressant reaction rates.”
“Knowing non-response to therapy with SSRIs continues to be an essential known unknown. There is presently an intriguing connection between eating fish and basic health. The current study, while preliminary, takes the story into the realm of depression. Larger scale specified studies will be of considerable interest.