Omega-3 acids are beneficial against bipolar disorder and depression. This is the conclusion of a study conducted by a scientific team at the Institute of Agronomic Research (INRA).

According to information from the newspaper this study that polyunsaturated fatty acids found in some foods such as walnut oil, certain fish such as tuna, salmon, sardines, mackerel, plants such as soya, etc., have already proven their properties to reduce cardiovascular risks.

In this new research as one of its authors comments Pierre Astorg were reviewed studies of the past 12 years, which has sought a relationship between “fish and bipolar disorder and depression.”

Among the studies audited highlights a study conducted in China, which measured the levels of Omega-3 in red blood cells of one hundred patients admitted to hospital after attempting suicide, and compared the results with those of patients admitted for an accident. In this Chinese study levels of eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA) and decosahexaenoico acid (DHA)-two types of omega-3-were higher than those of persons who had attempted suicide.

In another study in 2003 involving 10,000 pregnancies showed that those who dealt with “postpartum depression” had lower levels of omega-3 DHA in plasma lipids collected the day that gave birth to their children.

The team of researchers from the Institute of Agronomic Research (INRA), argue that many studies that support the relationship between fish and depression, especially studies from areas such as Japan and Korea where the population has a diet rich in fish.

They add that in countries where fish consumption is higher and milk richer in Omega-3, there is less “postpartum depression”. The study took place in laboratory mice that were deprived of omega-3 were “more stressed and less memory” that they had absorbed the Omega-3.

Following this, the research moved to the laboratory to verify this relationship in mice, observing that those mice that were deprived of omega-3 were “more stressed, anxious, and with much less memory than those who had absorbed omega-3.