Possible Interaction: Fatty Acids, Omega-3 and Fluoxetine

“For instance, … recent study omega-3 fatty acids when … in conjunction with fluoxetine decreased the Hamilton Rating Scale for Depression scores by greater than half in 81% of patients in comparison … a similar decline in only 50% of the patients who were administered fluoxetine only (Jazayeri et al., 2008).”

“Although individual treatments had no effects on DPA concentration, DPA increase was higher when omega-3 were combined with the non-antidepressant dose of fluoxetine.”

“Either antidepressant (10 mg/kg day) or non-antidepressant (1 mg/kg day) doses of fluoxetine in combination with omega-3 fatty acids increased hippocampal docosapentaenoic acid (DPA, 22:5 omega-3) levels.”

“Our results suggest no pharmacokinetic interaction and reveal specific hippocampal DPA changes after fluoxetine and omega-3 combined treatments in our experimental conditions.”

“The DPA role in the synergistic effect of fluoxetine and omega-3 combined treatments will be for sure the focus of future studies.”

“We previously reported that combined fluoxetine administration at antidepressant doses renders additive antidepressant effects, whereas non-antidepressant doses potentiate the omega-3 fatty acid antidepressant effect.”

“ Fluoxetine or mirtazapine at antidepressant doses (10 and 20 mg/kg/day, respectively) rendered additive effects in combination with omega-3 fatty acid supplementation (720 mg/kg/day).”

“However, in chronic study, omega-3 fatty acids affect the immobility and swimming behavior significantly … < 0.01) without any significant effect on climbing behavior and the efficacy of combination of omega-3 fatty acids … fluoxetine is significantly more than that of fluoxetine … activity of rats in forced swimming test.”

“It leads to the conclusion that omega-3 fatty acids have antidepressant activity per se, and the combination of fluoxetine and omega-3 fatty acids has more antidepressant efficacy than fluoxetine alone in forced swimming test in Wistar rats.”