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Offit gives Vioxx as a case in point. Vioxx, approved in 1999, was a huge hit for treating arthritis pain. It's a more refined version of the drugs in the same class as aspirin and ibuprofen, without causing the stomach bleeding that can make them dangerous. Tests showed it could raise the risk of heart attacks and Vioxx's maker pulled it off the market. "So which is more dangerous: Vioxx or vitamins? Indeed, both have dangers," Offit writes. "The better question is, why does everybody know that Vioxx can cause heart disease and nobody knows that megavitamins can cause cancer? The answer is that we have chosen not to know."

This has been discussed and tried as a treatment for eons by parents (myself included) not wanting to put their kids on serious drugs. Most psychiatrists do not back it up as viable so having an article in JAMA about it is a huge change in perspective and it comes on the heels of research showing pretty serious side effects to the pharmaceutical treatments.

How food, and its component molecules, affect the body is largely a mystery. That makes the use of supplements for anything other than treating a deficiency questionable. Despite this one study, you should still consider eating fish and other seafood as a healthy strategy. . . . [I]t's more than likely that you need the entire orchestra of fish fats, vitamins, minerals, and supporting molecules, rather than the lone notes of EPA and DHA.