Mixture of essential fatty acids lowers test anxiety.

Department of Psychology and Gonda Brain Research Center, Psychopharmacology Laboratory, Bar Ilan University, Ramat Gan, Israel. yehudas@mail.biu.ac.il

Test anxiety is an incapacitating academic syndrome. This study shows that administration of a polyunsaturated fatty acid mixture of omega-3 and -6 can improve the behavioral variables associated with this type of anxiety, i.e. appetite, mood, mental concentration, fatigue, academic organization and poor sleep, as well as lowering elevated cortisol level, with a corresponding reduction of anxiety.

PMID: 16491653 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]