Study Reveals Link Between Probiotics and Improved Mental Health and Depression

Probiotic foods and supplements have gained immense popularity for their potential health benefits, including mental health. Depression is a highly prevalent mental condition that is a leading cause of disability worldwide. As more and more people succumb to depression and its horrors, researchers and therapists are searching for ways to improve existing therapies and develop new and effective methods to treat it and for patients to cope with it.

For years, researchers have been trying to establish the effects of probiotics in alleviating depression in people. This quest led to a special group of probiotics, called psychobiotics, which could help in treating a range of mental conditions, including depression and overall mental well-being.

According to new research published in the journal Translational Psychiatry, a group of researchers from the University of Basel and the University Psychiatric Clinics Basel (UPK) showed that probiotics support treatment with antidepressants for the alleviation of depression.

Effect of Probiotics on Alleviating Depression

The findings of the previous studies that the composition of the bacterial community in the gut plays an important role in depressive symptoms serve as the foundation of this new study. The research led by Dr. André Schmidt and Professor Undine Lang studied the effects of probiotics on the treatment of people with depression.

The participants of the study were inpatients at the University Psychiatric Clinics Basel (UPK). They were randomly divided into two groups, one of which was given probiotics in addition to antidepressants, and the other was given a placebo with the antidepressants for 31 days. Neither the study staff nor the participants knew what was being administered to the participants in either group throughout the research.

Analyses that were conducted before the treatment, at the end of 31 days, and four weeks later, showed that although depressive symptoms decreased in both groups, the participants in the probiotic group showed signs of greater improvement than those in the placebo group.

It was also learned that the administration of the probiotics led to a change in the composition of the participants’ intestinal flora. However, this change was temporary as the level of the health-promoting gut bacteria decreased over the following weeks.

Anna-Chiara Schaub, one of the authors of the study, reasoned that “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”.

Effect of Probiotics on Brain Activity

The researchers also studied the relationship between probiotics and brain activity. Generally, patients with depression have certain brain regions for emotional processing that behave differently than those of individuals with good mental health. Using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) after four weeks of probiotics, researchers found that this brain activity had normalized in only the patient in the probiotics group.

Although this research demonstrated the positive effects of probiotics on mental health and reduced symptoms of depression, Schaub emphasized that probiotics are not the sole treatment for depression and are more suitable as a ‘support treatment’ to antidepressants.

She explained, “Although the microbiome-gut-brain axis has been the subject of research for a number of years, the exact mechanisms are yet to be fully clarified. With additional knowledge of the specific effect of certain bacteria, it may be possible to optimize the selection of bacteria and to use the best mix in order to support treatment for depression”.



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