Probiotics as an Adjuvant Treatment for Psychiatric Disorders
Bibliographic record
Abstract
Introduction: Many psychiatric illnesses have been linked to the gut microbiome, with supplements such as probiotics showing some efficacy in alleviating the symptoms of some psychiatric illnesses. There is a well-established, bidirectional connection between the gut microbiome and the brain, known as the gut-brain-axis. Research suggests that the gut-brain-axis may influence a variety of neurological functions, including the pathology of psychiatric disorders. The aim of this chapter is to evaluate the current literature investigating the effects of adjuvant probiotic or synbiotic administration in combination with first-line treatments for psychiatric illnesses. Methods: This review was carried out according to the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) guidelines. A systematic search of four databases was conducted using key terms related to treatments for psychiatric illnesses, the gut microbiome, and probiotics. All results were then evaluated based on specific eligibility criteria. Results: Ten studies met eligibility criteria and were analysed for reported changes in outcome measures used to assess the symptoms of psychiatric illness and the tolerability of treatment. All Major Depressive Disorder (MDD) (n=7) and Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD) (n=1) studies found adjuvant probiotic or synbiotic treatment to be more efficacious in improving the symptoms of psychiatric illness than the first-line treatment alone or with placebo. The schizophrenia studies (n=2) found adjuvant probiotic treatment to have no significant difference in clinical outcomes, but it was found to improve the tolerability of first-line antipsychotics. Discussion and Conclusion: The findings of the studies included in this chapter suggest the use of adjuvant probiotic treatment with selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) for MDD and GAD to be superior to SSRI treatment alone. Probiotic adjuvant treatment with antipsychotics could be beneficial for improving the tolerability of the antipsychotics, but these findings do not suggest that adjuvant probiotic treatment would result in improved clinical outcomes for symptoms of schizophrenia. Finally, it is said that the gut microbiome and the brain are clearly linked, and reviewed studies show that combining treatments that target both areas respectively is a viable and efficacious way to combat the symptoms and treat psychiatric illnesses.
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How this classification was reachedexpand
Full frame machine prediction
Teacher imitationNot calibrated prevalence, not ground truth. Human validation pending. The Gemma side is a direct model label for every work in the frame, read from the title-only record. The Codex side is a classifier learned from the 10,348 direct Codex labels and calibrated to design-weighted sample rates; fields without enough sample support carry no Codex call. Candidate is the union of the two sides; consensus is their intersection. These outputs are machine_predicted_unvalidated and are not human labels.
Distilled classifier scores by category (both heads)
| Category | Codex | Gemma |
|---|---|---|
| Metaresearch | 0.003 | 0.009 |
| Meta-epidemiology (narrow) | 0.001 | 0.000 |
| Meta-epidemiology (broad) | 0.003 | 0.003 |
| Bibliometrics | 0.002 | 0.002 |
| Science and technology studies | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Scholarly communication | 0.002 | 0.001 |
| Open science | 0.001 | 0.001 |
| Research integrity | 0.002 | 0.002 |
| Insufficient payload (model declined to judge) | 0.005 | 0.000 |
Machine scores (provisional)
The two teacher heads of the student model, read on this work. A score orders the frame for review; it never asserts a category, and the validation status ships verbatim with every row.
Baseline scores from an immature model (maturity gate not passed, 7 training rounds). Scores rank; they never assert a category.
score_only:v0-immature-baseline · verbatim from the scoring run: score_only means the number may rank works, and no category label ships from itClassification
machine, unvalidatedMachine predicted; a candidate call from one source (direct Gemma or distilled Codex), not a consensus.
How this classification was reached, model by model and score by score, is at the end of the page under "How this classification was reached".