One study involved 80 young people aged 13 to 25 with early symptoms of schizophrenia. Half were randomly assigned to take fish oil tablets for 3 months and the other half were given a placebo for 3 months. The researchers followed the subjects for seven years and found that only 10 percent of those taking fish oil tablets developed schizophrenia, compared with 40 percent of those taking a placebo. Therefore, the researchers concluded that taking fish oil tablets may help prevent schizophrenia in adolescents.
Fish oil tablets have been tried in adults with schizophrenia, but experiments have found no effect is the least likely to challenge the researchers' conclusions.