ITD - The Omega-3 clinical trial that was published in The Journal of Clinical Psychiatry (and the only psychiatry journal to which I still subscribe) was very flawed. I guess that one could say that they used "creative statistics" in order to make it appear that the response rate of the Omega-3 fatty acid group was larger than it really was. I can't remember the author's name, nor that of a big name in biolar disorder (they will come to me, if I don't think about them).

That being said, I do believe that Omega-3 fatty acids do help control bipolar disorder, but there are some annoying side effects. To get enough Omega-3 for a clinical effect, the dose is so high that you literally smell like a fish. The doctor (Kroll?) has his own concentrated Omega-3 concoction that he used in his clinical trial. I don't know if there are concentrated products on the market, but I would bet that they would be expensive.

Also, if you've not had a manic/depressive episode how do you know if it is the fish oil or if it is a natural remission. In clinical trials for new drugs for bipolar disorder this is the hard part, is it the drug or is it natural? Clinical trials are usually 6 to 12 weeks in length. Running these trials is expensive and humans are the worst guinea pigs; way too unpredictable. I don't think that it is possible to come to any conclusion on the effects of a drug being tried for bipolar disorder in such a short time period (?Kroll's clinical trial was a year or more - I think - in length). Basically all the researchers are doing is recording (start-up) side effects.

Omega-3 fatty acids pass into the brain fairly easily. They also cross cell walls easily. Fatty acids have a large lipid [fat, oily] groups making up their molecules. Since "like dissolves like" Fatty acids can "dissolve" into cell walls; they actually slip into the cell between two molecules in the cellular wall.
Inside a nerve cell, it is thought that omega-3 fatty acids interferes with the energy production in the cell, normalizing it (ie. the nerve cell won't fire so easily).

This looks good on paper but does it help enough to have a significant effect. Maybe, in some people. I don't know, I think it should work better than it does and I don't know of a reason why this is so.

I hope that this mish-mash is of some help. - Cam