Background
Omega-3-rich fish oil dietary supplements have long been recommended for heart health. Recent research shows that they also lessen aggression. Researchers say these common, safe supplements need to be utilized everywhere—from the prison system to the playground.
What is Aggression?
Bullying and acts of physical and verbal abuse are examples of overt aggressiveness. Subtle indicators include stealing, starting fires, vandalism, and property destruction. Both have the potential to harm relationships and have legal repercussions. It should go without saying that less violent conduct would benefit society in many ways. That may be possible, according to recent research.
Research
Researchers from the University of Pennsylvania (Penn) discovered that ubiquitous omega-3 dietary supplement, independent of age or gender, decreased aggressiveness.
Adrian Raine, a neurocriminologist at Penn and the study’s primary and corresponding author, said, “I think the time has come to implement omega-3 supplementation to reduce aggression, irrespective of whether the setting is the community, the clinic, or the criminal justice system.” Omega-3 is not a panacea that will address the issue of violence in our culture. Can it, however, be helpful? These results strongly suggest that it can, and we need to begin using the newfound understanding.
For a time now, Omega-3 has had an odd relationship with aggressive conduct. A research conducted in 2001 by senior clinical investigator Dr. Joseph Hibbeln of the US National Institutes of Health (NIH) found a link between reduced murder rates and greater fish eating, a rich source of omega-3 fatty acids. The next year, nutritional supplements, including vitamins, minerals, and vital fatty acids, were supplied to British convicts as part of research conducted by the University of Oxford in the United Kingdom. Supplements were proven to reduce violence and bad behavior in inmates.
The present study’s researchers sought to see whether omega-3 was useful for treating all types of aggressiveness and how omega-3 supplements affected aggression. In psychology, there is a difference between “proactive” aggressiveness—which requires planning—and “reactive” aggression, which is an impulsive reaction to a perceived danger or provocation.
The researchers conducted a meta-analysis of 29 randomized controlled studies that evaluated hostility in individuals receiving omega-3 supplements. They focused on aggressive behavior rather than more general characteristics like hostility, which is more of an attitude, and rage, which is seen as a mood or emotion. Research in which extra nutritional supplements—like calcium and vitamin D—were added but were also looked at by the researchers as possible moderators.
Result of the Study
Regardless of age, gender, initial diagnosis, length of therapy, or dose, a slight short-term benefit associated with omega-3 supplementation was seen. The researchers believe this impact is equivalent to a 30% decrease in aggressiveness. It’s noteworthy that omega-3 was shown to lessen proactive and reactive aggressiveness. Because only one of the 19 labs performing the experiments followed up with individuals after supplementation ceased, the researchers could only get short-term data.
The researchers describe how they think omega-3 works. Prior research has shown that there is a cognitive and neurochemical foundation for aggressive and violent conduct. Furthermore, omega-3 is important for maintaining the structure and functionality of the brain, controlling neurotransmitter and gene expression, and lowering inflammation in the brain.
Therefore, “it is reasonable to believe that omega-3 supplementation could play a causal role in reducing aggression by upregulating brain mechanisms that may be dysfunctional in… individuals, given the assumption that there is, in part, a neurobiological basis to aggression, given the undeniable fact that omega-3 dietary supplement is pervasively involved in multiple facets of neuronal biology,” the researchers wrote.
Further research is required to evaluate the long-term impact of omega-3 supplementation on lowering aggressiveness. Study directions include investigating whether heredity influences omega-3 therapy and whether MRI scans are useful in determining whether omega-3 improves brain functioning. According to the researchers, there isn’t any risk associated with taking this readily accessible, low-cost nutritional supplement in the interim, even for youngsters.
“At the absolute least, parents seeking therapy for an aggressive kid should know that an additional serving or two of fish each week might possibly help,” said Raine. This is in addition to whatever other treatment the child is receiving.
Furthermore, the researchers recommend using omega-3 dietary supplements in addition to already available psychiatric and psychological therapies.
“We would contend that caregivers are informed of the potential benefits of omega-3 supplementation and that it be viewed as an adjunct to other interventions, whether they be psychological (such as cognitive behavioral therapy; CBT) or pharmacological (such as risperidone, an antipsychotic medication).”
The study was published in the journal Aggression and Violent Behavior.
Source: University of Pennsylvania