Posted by Larry Hoover on December 8, 2002, at 15:53:40
In reply to Any research on ADHD and fish oil?, posted by hok on December 5, 2002, at 21:40:38
> I have atypical depression that's comorbid with moderate ADD symptoms. Anybody know of any substantial research on fatty acids for ADD?
I was surprised to discover that there is not very much research into this, as over a decade ago, differences in fatty acid ratios in ADHD kids were identified. There is this one, although what they specifically mean by HUFA isn't defined.
Prog Neuropsychopharmacol Biol Psychiatry 2002 Feb;26(2):233-9
A randomized double-blind, placebo-controlled study of the effects of supplementation with highly unsaturated fatty acids on ADHD-related symptoms in children with specific learning difficulties.
Richardso AJ, Puri BK.
University Department of Physiology, Oxford, England, UK. alex.richardson@physiol.ox.ac.uk
(1) The authors tested the prediction that relative deficiencies in highly unsaturated fatty acids (HUFAs) may underlie some of the behavioral and learning problems associated with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) by studying the effects of HUFA supplementation on ADHD-related symptoms in children with specific learning difficulties (mainly dyslexia) who also showed ADHD features. (2) Forty-one children aged 8-12 years with both specific learning difficulties and above-average ADHD ratings were randomly allocated to HUFA supplementation or placebo for 12 weeks. (3) At both baseline and follow-up, a range of behavioral and learning problems associated with ADHD was assessed using standardized parent rating scales. (4) At baseline, the groups did not differ, but after 12 weeks mean scores for cognitive problems and general behavior problems were significantly lower for the group treated with HUFA than for the placebo group; there were significant improvements from baseline on 7 out of 14 scales for active treatment, compared with none for placebo. Group differences in change scores all favored HUFA, reaching conventional significance levels for 3 out of 14 scales. (5) HUFA supplementation appears to reduce ADHD-related symptoms in children with specific learning difficulties. Given the safety and tolerability of this simple treatment, results from this pilot study strongly support the case for further investigations.
poster:Larry Hoover
thread:130709
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20021203/msgs/131026.html