Double Blind, Crossover Study of Fish Oil [EPA and DHA] for Intractable Partial Seizures

Summary

The purpose of this study is to determine if Omega-3 fatty acids reduce seizures and modify cardiac risk factors in people with epilepsy.

Timeline

Start

2008-05

Primary completion

2011-05

Completion

2011-08

Outcome

Met primary endpoint

paper Low-dose fish oil (3 capsules/day, 1080 mg eicosapentaenoic acid+docosahexaenoic acid) was associated with a 33.6% reduction in seizure frequency compared with placebo. PMID 25201887 ↗

Publications

• Background DeGiorgio CM, Miller P, Meymandi S, Gornbein JA. n-3 fatty acids (fish oil) for epilepsy, cardiac risk factors, and risk of SUDEP: clues from a pilot, double-blind, exploratory study. Epilepsy Behav. 2008 Nov;13(4):681-4. doi: 10.1016/j.yebeh.2008.08.001. Epub 2008 Sep 7.
• Background DeGiorgio CM, Miller P. n-3 fatty acids (eicosapentanoic and docosahexanoic acids) in epilepsy and for the prevention of sudden unexpected death in epilepsy. Epilepsy Behav. 2008 Nov;13(4):712-3. doi: 10.1016/j.yebeh.2008.06.017. Epub 2008 Aug 9. No abstract available.
• Results DeGiorgio CM, Miller P, Meymandi S, Chin A, Epps J, Gordon S, Gornbein J, Harper RM. RMSSD, a measure of vagus-mediated heart rate variability, is associated with risk factors for SUDEP: the SUDEP-7 Inventory. Epilepsy Behav. 2010 Sep;19(1):78-81. doi: 10.1016/j.yebeh.2010.06.011. Epub 2010 Jul 27.
• Novak JL, Miller PR, Markovic D, Meymandi SK, DeGiorgio CM. Risk Assessment for Sudden Death in Epilepsy: The SUDEP-7 Inventory. Front Neurol. 2015 Dec 9;6:252. doi: 10.3389/fneur.2015.00252. eCollection 2015.
• DeGiorgio CM, Miller PR, Harper R, Gornbein J, Schrader L, Soss J, Meymandi S. Fish oil (n-3 fatty acids) in drug resistant epilepsy: a randomised placebo-controlled crossover study. J Neurol Neurosurg Psychiatry. 2015 Jan;86(1):65-70. doi: 10.1136/jnnp-2014-307749. Epub 2014 Sep 8.

Drugs

Indications