DHA Useless for Treating ADHD?
Many fish oil companies are touting DHA as a viable treatment for ADHD, but did you know that a Mayo Clinic study published nearly 5 years ago showed DHA not only to be ineffective, but to be actually detrimental to children with ADHD?
Here is an excerpt from the study:
Attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (AD/HD) is a behavior-related disorder that is diagnosed in increasing numbers of children in the United States. Currently there is great concern that too many children with AD/HD or suspected AD/HD are being medicated with stimulant drugs. Thus, alternative treatments are being sought.
One treatment under consideration is a dietary supplement of DHA, a fatty acid that is present in large amounts in the fats of brain cell membranes but which is low in the blood of children with AD/HD. To find out whether DHA supplements would help such children, we gave a large group of AD/HD children either a placebo or a capsule containing DHA daily for 4 months while the children kept taking their usual stimulant drugs as prescribed (except for 24 hours before lab tests).
Their blood was tested for fatty acid levels before and after the study. In addition, parents completed behavioral assessment forms, and the children took tests to evaluate attentiveness, impulsiveness, and problem- solving ability.
The results indicate that DHA was ineffective in alleviating symptoms of AD/HD in these children. In fact, scores on a test indicating inattention worsened significantly in the DHA-treated but not in the placebo group and scores on a test indicating impulsivity improved in the placebo but not the DHA group. These findings provide valuable information in the quest to help AD/HD children by finding new safe and effective ways to treat them.”
Studies using high-EPA fish oil, however saw the opposite results. Interesting, huh?