The HPA axis dysregulation in severe mental illness: Can we shift the blame to gut microbiota?

This 2021 review provides an overview of recent discoveries on how the gut microbiota influences anxiety and depression. While these mental disorders have become massive health issues in recent decades, there is emerging evidence that suggests that unbalancing the microbial communities in the gut may greatly affect the physiological development of mood disorders. In fact, […]

In this cross-sectional study by Hernández-Cacho et al. (2025), participants from the PREDIMED-Plus trial (n = 400) were investigated for a potential gut–brain axis connection between gut microbiota and depression. Depression was identified by either the use of antidepressants or elevated scores on the Beck Depression Inventory-II. Researchers analyzed gut microbiota using 16S rRNA sequencing […]