ArticleChild and adolescent psychiatry and mental health2019
Omega-3 fatty acids for the treatment of depressive disorders in children and adolescents: a meta-analysis of randomized placebo-controlled trials.
Article in Child and adolescent psychiatry and mental health, 2019. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 13 papers, 3 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
13 citing papers in PubMed, 3 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 21 citations in OpenAlex.
- Omega-3 fatty acid supplementation for depression in children and adolescents.The Cochrane database of systematic reviews · 2024Pooled it
- Unsaturated Fatty Acids in Mental Disorders: An Umbrella Review of Meta-Analyses.Advances in nutrition (Bethesda, Md.) · 2022Pooled it
- Pooled it
- ω-3 Fatty Acids in Pediatric Major Depressive Disorder: A Randomized Clinical Trial.JAMA network open · 2026Trial
- Do Single Food Habits Matter? Fish and Vegetables Intake and Risk of Low HRQoL in Schoolchildren (ASOMAD Study).Children (Basel, Switzerland) · 2025Article
- [The German S3 guideline for depressive disorders in childhood and adolescence: new developments].Bundesgesundheitsblatt, Gesundheitsforschung, Gesundheitsschutz · 2023Review
- Omega-3 supplements in the prevention and treatment of youth depression and anxiety symptoms: A scoping review.PloS one · 2023Article
- Novel Pharmacological Approaches to the Treatment of Depression.Life (Basel, Switzerland) · 2022Review
- Review
- Current Research on Complementary and Alternative Medicine (CAM) in the Treatment of Major Depressive Disorder: An Evidence-Based Review.Advances in experimental medicine and biology · 2021Review
- Verbal Memory Performance in Depressed Children and Adolescents: Associations with EPA but Not DHA and Depression Severity.Nutrients · 2020Article
- Toward prevention of bipolar disorder in at-risk children: Potential strategies ahead of the data.Journal of affective disorders · 2020Review
- Review
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
5 authors at 2 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundTo investigate the efficacy and safety of omega-3 fatty acids (O3FA) in treating depressive disorders in children and adolescents.
methodWe conducted a comprehensive search in electronic databases and hand-searched articles included for relevant studies. We included randomized controlled trials which studied on O3FA for treatment of children and adolescents with depression. The standard mean differences (SMDs) and the odds ratios (ORs) with 95% confidence intervals (CIs) were estimated by a random-effects model. The primary outcomes were end-point depressive symptoms scores (efficacy) and all-cause discontinuation (safety). The secondary outcome of response rate was also assessed. Subgroup analyses were performed by age, severity of depression and dosage. Risk of bias assessment was performed based on the Jadad score and the Cochrane Collaboration's risk-of-bias method.
resultsA total of four studies with 153 participants were included. In terms of efficacy, there was no significant difference of end-point depressive symptoms scores between O3FA and placebo (SMD = - 0.12, 95% CI - 0.53 to 0.30, P = 0.58;
conclusionsOnly considering the limited evidence of O3FA in the acute treatment of major depressive disorder, it did not seem to offer a clear advantage for children and adolescents.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What Socratic holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the Socratic graph.