Long-chain n-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids decrease feelings of anger in substance abusers

Baseline daily fish and long-chain n-3 PUFAs intake in patients with and without a history of assaultive behavior. Circles represent individual patients. Horizontal lines represent means. Comparisons of the two patient groups with Mann–Whitney U tests revealed that patients with a history of assaultive behavior reported significantly lower fish and long-chain n-3 PUFAs intakes (P=0.013 and P=0.011, respectively).

Anger scale scores (means±SEM) of substance abusers during a 3-month administration of n-3 PUFAs or placebo. A comparison of the scores of the 2 patient groups by a repeated measures ANCOVA (with baseline values as covariates) revealed a significant difference (P=0.025). The effect size was large (f=0.53).

Anger scale scores (means±SEM) in a subset of the initial sample of substance abusers during a 3-month administration of n-3 PUFAs or placebo and a follow-up period of 3 months. A comparison of the scores of the 2 patient groups by a repeated measures ANCOVA (with baseline values as covariates) almost reached significance (P=0.060). The effect size was large (f=0.64).