ArticleJournal of psychiatric research2016
Omega-3 polyunsaturated fatty acid supplementation and white matter changes in major depression.
Article in Journal of psychiatric research, 2016. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 33 papers, 6 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
33 citing papers in PubMed, 6 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 61 citations in OpenAlex.
- Structural brain correlates in major depressive disorder, anxiety disorders, and post-traumatic stress disorder: a diffusion tensor imaging meta-analysis.Psychological medicine · 2025Pooled it
- Omega-3 fatty acid supplementation for depression in children and adolescents.The Cochrane database of systematic reviews · 2024Pooled it
- Nutraceuticals in Psychiatric Disorders: A Systematic Review.International journal of molecular sciences · 2024Pooled it
- Omega-3 PUFAs' efficacy in the therapy of coronary artery disease combined with anxiety or depression: a meta-analysis.Frontiers in psychiatry · 2024Pooled it
- Polyunsaturated Fatty Acids: What is Their Role in Treatment of Psychiatric Disorders?International journal of molecular sciences · 2019Pooled it
- N-3 Polyunsatured Fatty Acids in Menopausal Transition: A Systematic Review of Depressive and Cognitive Disorders with Accompanying Vasomotor Symptoms.International journal of molecular sciences · 2018Pooled it
- A 16-week randomized placebo-controlled trial investigating the effects of omega-3 polyunsaturated fatty acid treatment on white matter microstructure in recent-onset psychosis patients concurrently treated with risperidone.Psychiatry research. Neuroimaging · 2021Trial
- Aberrant topology of the default mode network is associated with phosphatidylcholine and triglyceride levels in major depressive disorder.World journal of psychiatry · 2026Article
- Identifying plasma metabolic characteristics of major depressive disorder, bipolar disorder, and schizophrenia in adolescents.Translational psychiatry · 2024Article
- The role of polyunsaturated fatty acids in the neurobiology of major depressive disorder and suicide risk.Molecular psychiatry · 2024Review
- Dietary omega-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids reduce cytochrome c oxidase in brain white matter and sensorimotor regions while increasing functional interactions between neural systems related to escape behavior in postpartum rats.Frontiers in systems neuroscience · 2024Article
- Article
- Erythrocyte Membrane Fatty Acid Composition as a Potential Biomarker for Depression.The international journal of neuropsychopharmacology · 2023Article
- Circulating polyunsaturated fatty acids, fish oil supplementation, and risk of incident dementia: a prospective cohort study of 440,750 participants.GeroScience · 2023Article
- Dietary oily fish intake and progression of diffuse subcortical damage of vascular origin: A longitudinal prospective study in community-dwelling older adults.European stroke journal · 2022Article
- Effects of docosahexaenoic acid and eicosapentaoic acid supplementation on white matter integrity after repetitive sub-concussive head impacts during American football: Exploratory neuroimaging findings from a pilot RCT.Frontiers in neurology · 2022Article
- Diffusion tensor imaging brain structural clustering patterns in major depressive disorder.Human brain mapping · 2021Article
- Examining the relationship between gray matter volume and a continuous measure of bipolarity in unmedicated unipolar and bipolar depression.Journal of affective disorders · 2021Article
- Diffusion Tensor Tractography Characteristics of White Matter Tracts are Associated with Post-Stroke Depression.Neuropsychiatric disease and treatment · 2021Article
- Injuries in Left Corticospinal Tracts, Forceps Major, and Left Superior Longitudinal Fasciculus (Temporal) as the Quality Indicators for Major Depressive Disorder.Neural plasticity · 2021Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
9 authors at 2 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
Abstract
White matter abnormalities are implicated in major depressive disorder (MDD). As omega-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFAs) are low in MDD and affect myelination, we hypothesized that PUFA supplementation may alleviate depression through improving white matter integrity. Acutely depressed MDD patients (n = 16) and healthy volunteers (HV, n = 12) had 25-direction diffusion tensor imaging before and after 6 weeks of fish oil supplementation. Plasma phospholipid omega-3 PUFAs eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA) and docosahexaenoic acid (DHA), and omega-6 PUFA arachidonic acid (AA) levels were determined before and after supplementation using high-throughput extraction and gas chromatography and expressed as a percentage of total phospholipids (PUFA%). Fractional anisotropy (FA) was computed using a least-squares-fit diffusion tensor with non-linear optimization. Regression analyses were performed with changes in PUFA levels or Hamilton Depression Rating Scale scores as predictors, voxel-wise difference maps of FA as outcome, covariates age and sex, with family-wise correction for multiple comparisons. Increases in plasma phospholipid DHA% (but not EPA% or AA%) after fish oil predicted increases in FA in MDD but not HV, in a cluster including genu and body of the corpus callosum, and anterior corona radiata and cingulum (cluster-level p < 0.001, peak t-score = 8.10, p = 0.002). There was a trend for greater change in FA in MDD responders over nonresponders (t = -1.874, df = 13.56, p = 0.08). Decreased depression severity predicted increased FA in left corticospinal tract and superior longitudinal fasciculus (cluster-level p < 0.001, peak t-score = 5.04, p = 0.0001). Increased FA correlated with increased DHA% and decreased depression severity after fish oil supplementation suggests therapeutic effects of omega-3 PUFAs may be related to improvements in white matter integrity.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.