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Microbiota-targeted interventions for mental health
The gut microbiome is a rising avenue for interventional management of mental health. This review by Berding and Cryan (2022) provides an overview of the latest scientific breakthroughs in the use of microbiome-targeted modalities for mental health management. Examples of discussed breakthroughs include the use of probiotics, prebiotics, synbiotics, fecal microbiota transplant and dietary interventions. Of these, probiotic supplements are amongst the most researched interventions, with several works on their efficacy in the management of mood disorders and anxiety. Furthermore, the authors comment on the current rise in the use of multistrain probiotics, whole dietary interventions or integrative therapies, and the promising potential they have demonstrated in several publications. In spite of present works initially supporting the targeting of microbiota for mental health management, the authors conclude with the necessity of executing more studies, especially clinical cohort studies and studies that investigate large, defined populations with standardization to dose and duration of treatment, in order to fashion guidelines suitable for effective microbiota-based treatments. [NPID: Gut-targeted interventions, microbiota, microbiota-gut-brain axis, mental health]
Year: 2022
