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. 2020 May 20;20(1):248.
doi: 10.1186/s12888-020-02656-3.

High-dose omega-3 polyunsaturated fatty acid supplementation might be more superior than low-dose for major depressive disorder in early therapy period: a network meta-analysis

Xu-Dong Luo  1   2 , Jin-Shan Feng  3 , Zheng Yang  2 , Qiao-Ting Huang  1 , Ju-da Lin  2 , Bo Yang  4 , Kuan-Pin Su  5 , Ji-Yang Pan  6
Affiliations

High-dose omega-3 polyunsaturated fatty acid supplementation might be more superior than low-dose for major depressive disorder in early therapy period: a network meta-analysis

Xu-Dong Luo et al. BMC Psychiatry. .

Abstract

Background: The application of n-3 Polyunsaturated Fatty Acids (n-3 PUFAs) supplementation for major depressive disorder (MDD) has been widely discussed in recent years, but its efficacy and application are still controversial. This network meta-analysis was conducted to compare the efficacy of different dosages of n-3 PUFAs on MDD patients in the early period of treatment.

Methods: Randomized controlled trials (RCTs) exploring the efficacy of n-3 PUFA supplementation for patients with MDD were retrieved from the databases of Pubmed, Embase and the Cochrane Library. RCTs comparing the efficacy of n-3 PUFA for adult (≥18 years) MDD patients without comorbidity were eligible for our study. The score of depressive symptoms in early therapy period of the treatment (≤9 weeks) was extracted. Standardized mean deviations (SMDs) of all the sores from the eligible RCTs were synthesized in a pairwise meta-analysis in frequentist framework and a random-effects network meta-analysis in Bayesian framework for the overall and subgroups (high- and low-dose) efficacy of n-3 PUFAs.

Results: A total of 910 MDD patients in 10 trials with 3 adjuvant therapy strategies (high-dose n-3 PUFAs, low-dose n-3 PUFAs and placebo) were included. Results of pairwise meta-analysis showed that n-3 PUFAs were superior to placebo (SMD: 1.243 ± 0.596; 95% CI: 0.060 ~ 2.414). Results of the network meta-analysis showed that both the high (SMD: 0.908 ± 0.331; 95% CI: 0.262 ~ 1.581) and the low-dose (SMD: 0.601 ± 0.286; 95% CI: 0.034 ~ 1.18) n-3 PUFAs were superior to placebo, and the efficacy of high-dose n-3 PUFAs is superior to that of low-dose.

Conclusions: High-dose n-3 PUFAs supplementation might be more superior than low-dose in the early therapy period for MDD. More head-to-head clinical trials need to be carried out to provide more direct comparison and enhance the evidence of the efficacy of n-3PUFAs for MDD.

Keywords: Major depressive disorder; Network meta-analysis; Omega-3; Polyunsaturated fatty acid; Supplementation.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare that they have no competing interests.

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
Forest plot
Fig. 2
Fig. 2
Network plot. Nodes represent the competing strategies which are weighted according to the total number of each study; edges represent the available direct comparisons between pairs of strategies which are weighted according to the standard error (se) of each study
Fig. 3
Fig. 3
Rankogram
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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