Very interesting – if rather sad – article though. Thanks very much for the link – interesting reading!

A majority did not respond to omega 3/6 treatment. However, a subgroup of 26% responded with more than 25% reduction of ADHD symptoms and a drop of CGI scores to the near-normal range…A subgroup of children and adolescents with ADHD, characterized by inattention and associated neurodevelopmental disorders, treated with omega 3/6 fatty acids for 6 months responded with meaningful reduction of ADHD symptoms.

They can dress it up how they like but it is clear that there is no decent outcome if you were to use Intention to Treat – and there is no indication that one might be able to identify those children who would be responders.

Nonetheless, it is good to see it published rather than languishing in a desk drawer.

Overall, of course, this is rather sad – as the risk of sounding reductionist, it would be so useful for families if a comparatively straightforward intervention such as this were to be clinically significant.

Interesting to see an indication of the fact that children do improve and progress spontaneously.

At the end of Study Period 1, 26% (9/34), all boys) in the active group and 7% (2/30, 1 boy, 1 girl) in the placebo group were clinically meaningful responders with more than 25% improvement in ADHD symptoms…

Plus, although the abstract sounds unduly positive about the outcomes, the discussion is rather more realistic before it dives off into sub-group analysis territory:

Overall, this is an essentially negative study. The double-blind randomized placebo-controlled trial demonstrated that for the whole group of children and adolescents with ADHD, omega 3/6 supplementation for 3 months was not statistically superior to placebo…

A clinically meaningful response tended to be more frequent in the sugbroup of children with associated neurodevelopmental comorbidity, that is, RWD, DCD, LD, or AS, and was lacking altogether in children with ODD, depression, or anxiety diagnoses…This might tentatively be taken to mean that omega 3/6 treatment may be specifically effective for children with the phenotypie of deficits in attention, motor control, and perception…The results indicate that it may be helpful to select patients with this phenotype and reading or writing difficulties for future research trials and treatment with omega 3/6 fatty acids.

http://jad.sagepub.com/cgi/content/abstract/12/5/394