Does Omega 3 Have Any Behavorial Side Effects

[swmom]

Does Omega 3 have any behavioral side effects? Can it affect the way medications are absorbed or used in the body?

[DenverSarah]

I'm not an expert who can give you details...but my inderstanding is that if one is taking meds and then starts taking Omegas, they may experience a "backslide" in symptoms. If I understand correctly this is caused by the Omegas doing the job they are supposed to and building the synapses in the brain that are weak without them. Then the medications dosage must be lowered to compensate for the fact that the "hole" the meds were filling is now smaller. I hope this makes sense, I know it's a terribly unscientific explanation! Also, I believe this particular interaction is only true for stimulant meds.

[catatonic]

Omega-3 has a number of behavioral side effects, all of them positive. A healthy, well-nourished brain is one that functions as it's supposed to function, and essential fatty acids are critical for normal, healthy brain function. (I'd recommend using lecithing along with Omega-3 to insure the brain receives all the rich nutrients it requires.)

A number of research studies have concluded that ADHD and essential fatty acid deficiency go together very often. They aren't able to conclude if the EFA deficiency causes ADHD symptoms or whether something about ADHD brain abnormality causes EFA deficiency, but they have determined that correcting the EFA deficiency significantly impacts the symptoms of ADHD. (Omega-3 in conjunction with other nutritional supplements such as magnesium and B-complex vitamins can be remarkably successful.)

DenverSarah is correct about the "backslide" that may occur when you are using supplements. This is not an immediate thing, but will begin developing weeks into the supplementation, when nutritional deficiencies are corrected and the ADHD brain begins responding to stimulant medication more like a "normal" brain would. The effectiveness of stimulant medication is dependent upon abnormal brain function. Give it to someone with a healthy, well-nourished brain and it will get them jacked up. Not everyone notices this "backsliding" effect. Many who do notice take it as an indication that supplements are making the ADHD worse and will discontinue the supplements, rather than concluding that the supplements are making the ADHD better and adjusting the medication downward.

Supplements have worked very well for us, in combination with the Feingold diet, to effectively control all of my son's ADHD symptoms except for the attentiveness. This is still an issue we're working on. No he's not perfect, there are plenty of bad days if he eats off diet, there are sometimes bad weeks when we change supplements to one he has a poor response to. But overall, these days he's a kid I can like and whose company I can enjoy. I may still hear that he's not precisely Mr. Attention at school, but his teachers also tell me he's a nice kid who tries hard. So we're still experimenting, but experimenting with complete faith that there's a healthy solution out there somewhere.