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Fatty Acid Intake Can Impact Mood Symptoms for Patients with Bipolar Disorders
Dietary interventions to adjust fatty acid intake combined with usual care can help improve variability of mood related symptoms for patients with bipolar disorders (BD), according to new research from Penn State College of Medicine published in Bipolar Disorders.
Researchers aimed to investigate if dietary guidelines could help improve symptoms that patients with BD experience between episodes.
“As clinicians, we understand that if we can help our patients better control these symptoms between episodes, it could help reduce the number of times they relapse into acute episodes,” said Erika Saunders, MD, Shively-Tan Professor; chair, Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Health, Penn State Health Milton S. Hershey Medical Center. “Our goal with this trial was to see if specific dietary interventions could help patients with mood variability between episodes.”
Researchers compared the preliminary efficacy of a high n-3 plus low n-6 dietary intervention to the typical U.S. levels of n-6 and n-3 polyunsaturated fatty acid intakes to improve mood stability for patients with BD.
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A total of 82 participants with DSM-IV TR BD I or II were included in this 2-arm, randomized, modified double-blind, parallel-group, controlled 48-week study. All patients participated in a 12-week intensive diet intervention and diet counseling.
Researchers measured variability of mood symptoms twice a day. At baseline and weeks 4, 8, and 12 following the implementation of the diet change, circulating n-3 and n-6 fatty acids were measured in participants.
A total of 70 participants completed at least 2 ecological momentary analysis (EMA) surveys. Using the EMA analyses, variability in mood, energy, irritability, and pain were measured. A reduction in variability in these mood symptoms was seen in the high n-3 plus low n-6 dietary intervention group when compared to the treatment group receiving to the typical U.S. levels of n-6 and n-3 polyunsaturated fatty acid intakes. There were not significant differences in the mean rates of these mood symptoms between groups.
“At this time, we can’t yet recommend this type of diet for patients with bipolar disorders, although we found the diet to be safe,” Dr Saunders said. “This carefully constructed nutrition plan shows promise for regulating mood between manic and depressive episodes, but we’re not sure if this could be widely adopted since it would be challenging for patients to follow this rigorous program.”
Additional research is needed, and the research group plans to replicate the study to assess how fatty acid metabolites can impact pain in BD.
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