Health Notes

At your wit's end with your child’s unruly behaviour? Grab a bottle of omega-3s. A new 6-month long, double-blind, placebo-controlled study has found that omega-3 supplements reduce behavioural problems in children. Published in The Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 200 children, ages 8–16, were divided into two groups; one group received a fruit juice containing 1000 mg of omega-3 fatty acids (300 mg DHA; 200 mg EPA; 400 mg ALA; 100 mg DPA), while the other received a placebo. Children drinking the omega-3 fruit juice showed a 42% reduction in externalized behavioural problems, as well as a decline in internalized ones (depression), six months after the treatment ended. What may be even more interesting is that the behaviour of the parents also changed for the better, even though they did not receive any supplements; researchers noted that less aggressive parental reactions accounted for over 60% of the improvements seen in the children receiving omega-3s. It appears that parents were less stressed because their children were behaving better, which further reinforced the positive changes in the children.

Source: The Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry