Fish Oil and Aggression

This chapter focuses on the effects of fish oils on aggression or hostility. Hostile behavior is often rooted in anger and usually directed against a person. This chapter discusses the effects of fish oil on aggression. The study of human behavior is completely different from studying medicines that control hypertension. There are no simple parameters like blood pressure in behavior studies. However, many studies, including animal experiments, appear to indicate a general direction that fish oils (or at least treating n-3 fatty acid deficiency) modulate aggression. Serotonergic neurons are probably the mainstay of the mechanism as to how n-3 fatty acids work. The chapter presents a cross-country relationship between seafood consumption and mortality from homicide. Homicide is the ultimate deed of aggression and it is the easiest outcome to assess with very little diagnostic fluctuations. There was a significant inverse correlation between homicide rates and seafood consumption across countries.