What we’ve said about Omega-3 fatty acids

“I'm not proposing any of these as cures for depressions or like if people with depression just took these, they were going to cure. I want to be clear about that. A lot of these have small effect sizes. Even when we get the most potent omega-3s, we're talking about an effect size of 0.3 to 0.4”

“fish oil just doesn't have enough clout per pill. But when I want to use a placebo, when I really actually don't want to introduce anything new and I want to be sure that if we're introducing something like fish oil, it's not going to make things worse. Then fish oil is a great placebo”

“there are about, I remember about 30 controlled trials of omega-3 and depression. And they only show a benefit if we look at the ones that used high levels of EPA. The analyses are now recommending that it have at least twice as much EPA as DHA”

“You're also more likely to respond to, I should say, to need higher doses of omega-3. There is a study showing that you had to go higher if you had inflammation all the way up to 4,000 milligrams a day of the EPA and the DHA, where most people take 1 to 2,000”

“I don't recommend testing for any of these. And that's in some ways where the hypothesis falls apart. And the other hole in this hypothesis is that most of the trials, in fact, nearly, well, most of the trials have enrolled people without testing for a deficit”

“the astounding data, which didn't replicate, but that doesn't matter because it's now one against one, in adolescents who were psychosis prone. You know those studies. It's just jaw-dropping the difference”

“If they think about a leather car seat, it's been sitting out in the sun, they never oil it, it's going to get all crackly and crusty and broken. And that's what the brain looks like without the proper oils”