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Record W4408714202 · doi:10.1177/07067437251328270

The Safety and Efficacy of Microbial Ecosystem Therapeutic-2 in People With Major Depression – A Phase 2, Double-Blind, Placebo-Controlled Study: Clinical Results: Innocuité et efficacité du traitement de l'écosystème microbien (met–2) dans la dépression majeure – une étude de phase 2 à double insu contrölée par placebo : résultats cliniques

2025· article· en· W4408714202 on OpenAlexafffundvenueabout
Arthi Chinna Meyyappan, Cassandra Sgarbossa, Hayley Bromley, Evan Forth, Daniel J. Müller, Gustavo Vázquez, Casimiro Cabrera, Roumen Milev

Bibliographic record

VenueThe Canadian Journal of Psychiatry · 2025
Typearticle
Languageen
FieldBiochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology
TopicGut microbiota and health
Canadian institutionsQueen's UniversityCentre for Addiction and Mental HealthProvidence Health Care
FundersCanadian Institutes of Health ResearchMitacs
KeywordsPlaceboAnhedoniaMoodAdverse effectDepression (economics)AnxietyMedicineInternal medicinePsychiatryRandomized controlled trialAlternative medicineSchizophrenia (object-oriented programming)

Abstract

fetched live from OpenAlex

OBJECTIVES: This study examines the safety and efficacy of a fecal transplant alternative, Microbial Ecosystem Therapeutic-2 (MET-2), in improving symptoms of depression. The primary objective of this study is to assess changes in depressive symptoms before, during, and after administration of MET-2 in comparison to placebo. Mood-related symptoms such as anxiety and anhedonia, gastrointestinal symptoms, and safety of the therapeutic were also assessed using both self-report and clinician-rated measures. METHODS: = 29) experiencing a major depressive episode were recruited from the Kingston and Toronto areas. Participants orally consumed MET-2, an encapsulated microbial therapeutic containing 40 different strains of bacteria, or placebo alternative, once daily for 6 weeks with a 2-week follow-up. Participants underwent a series of clinical assessments used to measure mood, anxiety, and gastrointestinal symptoms. RESULTS: = 0.338). No serious adverse events were reported. The findings of this study are the first to provide evidence for the role of oral microbial therapeutics, such as MET-2, as treatment for symptoms of depression. CONCLUSIONS: Though there are positive trends suggesting a greater improvement in depressive symptomology among the MET-2 group compared to the placebo group, a larger sample size is needed for more conclusive results. CLINICALTRIALS: gov NCT04602715.

Fetched live from OpenAlex and de-inverted. Abstracts are not stored in this database: the inverted indexes are 8.6 GB of the frame’s 9.3 GB of text, and the host has 13 GB free.

How this classification was reachedexpand

Full frame machine prediction

Teacher imitation

Not 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.

metaresearch head score (Codex)0.002
metaresearch head score (Gemma)0.001
Version: metacan-v3-hybrid-931329e0061cValidation status: machine_predicted_unvalidated
Candidate categoriesnone
Consensus categoriesnone
DomainCandidate signal: none · Consensus signal: none
Study designCandidate signal: Randomized trial · Consensus signal: Randomized trial
GenreCandidate signal: Empirical · Consensus signal: Empirical
Teacher disagreement score0.003
Threshold uncertainty score0.009

Distilled classifier scores by category (both heads)

CategoryCodexGemma
Metaresearch0.0020.001
Meta-epidemiology (narrow)0.0010.000
Meta-epidemiology (broad)0.0010.001
Bibliometrics0.0000.000
Science and technology studies0.0000.000
Scholarly communication0.0010.000
Open science0.0000.000
Research integrity0.0010.001
Insufficient payload (model declined to judge)0.0030.000

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.

Opus teacher head0.014
GPT teacher head0.332
Teacher spread0.318 · how far apart the two teachers sit on this one work
Validation statusscore_only:v0-immature-baseline · verbatim from the scoring run: score_only means the number may rank works, and no category label ships from it

Classification

machine, unvalidated

Machine predicted; a candidate call from one source (direct Gemma or distilled Codex), not a consensus.

The models applied no category: nothing in the taxonomy fit this work.
Study designRandomized trial
Domainnot available
GenreEmpirical

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".

Quick stats

Citations1
Published2025
Admission routes4
Has abstractyes

Explore more

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