New Research Shows That Probiotics Can Help Alleviate Depression
upstart writes:
New Research Shows That Probiotics Can Help Alleviate Depression:
In their new study, the researchers led by Dr. Andre Schmidt and Professor Undine Lang systematically investigated the effects of probiotics on patients with depression. All participants were inpatients at the University Psychiatric Clinics Basel (UPK) and were given a probiotic (21 subjects) or a placebo (26 subjects) for 31 days, in addition to antidepressants. Neither the participants nor the study staff knew which preparation the subjects were taking throughout the study period. The researchers carried out a series of tests on the participants immediately before treatment, at the end of the 31 days and again four weeks later.
The subsequent analysis showed that although depressive symptoms decreased in all participants thanks to the general antidepressant treatment, there was a greater improvement in the subjects in the probiotic group than in the placebo group.
In addition, the composition of their intestinal flora changed, at least temporarily: in the probiotic group, an analysis of stool samples revealed an increase in lactic bacteria at the end of treatment - an effect that was accompanied by a reduction in depressive symptoms. However, the level of these health-promoting gut bacteria decreased again over the following four weeks. "It may be that four weeks of treatment is not long enough and that it takes longer for the new composition of the intestinal flora to stabilize," explains Anna-Chiara Schaub, one of the lead authors of the study.Change in the processing of emotional stimuli
Another interesting effect of taking probiotics was seen in relation to brain activity when viewing neutral or fearful faces. The researchers investigated this effect using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). In patients with depression, certain brain regions for emotional processing behave differently than in individuals with good mental health. After four weeks of probiotics, this brain activity normalized in the probiotic group but not in the placebo group.
Journal Reference:
Schaub, Anna-Chiara, Schneider, Else, Vazquez-Castellanos, Jorge F., et al. Clinical, gut microbial and neural effects of a probiotic add-on therapy in depressed patients: a randomized controlled trial [open], Translational Psychiatry (DOI: 10.1038/s41398-022-01977-z)
Read more of this story at SoylentNews.