The Gut Microbiome and Schizophrenia: The Current State of the Field and Clinical Applications
Schizophrenia is a debilitating psychiatric disorder, leading to both physical and social morbidity. Despite its importance, the etiology of schizophrenia remains poorly understood. Furthermore, its mainstream treatments fail to address all aspects of the disorder and are associated with significant...
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| Published in: | Frontiers in psychiatry Vol. 11; p. 156 |
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| Main Authors: | , , , |
| Format: | Journal Article |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
Switzerland
Frontiers Media S.A
12-03-2020
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| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | Get full text |
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| Summary: | Schizophrenia is a debilitating psychiatric disorder, leading to both physical and social morbidity. Despite its importance, the etiology of schizophrenia remains poorly understood. Furthermore, its mainstream treatments fail to address all aspects of the disorder and are associated with significant side-effects. Recently, there has been growing interest in the relationship between the gut microbiome and mental health, including in schizophrenia. In this article, we review the existing evidence implicating dysbiosis in schizophrenia and discuss how the presumed dysbiosis could fit within known hypotheses of its pathogenesis, focusing on inflammation, tryptophan metabolites, and BDNF levels. We also evaluate the clinical potential of manipulating the gut microbiome with probiotics and prebiotics as adjunctive treatments in schizophrenia, based on existing clinical and pre-clinical studies. Overall, the current data showing microbiome alterations in schizophrenia are highly discrepant and insufficient to conclude whether microbiome changes are associated with increased risk of the disorder, or are simply the result of external factors or treatment. Despite some encouraging results of pro/prebiotic supplementation, there is also inconclusive evidence for their efficacy in schizophrenia. Thus, further research and more clinical trials are needed to test the validity of manipulating the gut microbiome to improve the treatment of this disorder. |
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| Bibliography: | ObjectType-Article-2 SourceType-Scholarly Journals-1 ObjectType-Feature-3 content type line 23 ObjectType-Review-1 This article was submitted to Schizophrenia, a section of the journal Frontiers in Psychiatry Edited by: Kelly Anne Allott, University of Melbourne, Australia Reviewed by: Eduardo Castro-Nallar, Andres Bello University, Chile; Luis Vitetta, University of Sydney, Australia |
| ISSN: | 1664-0640 1664-0640 |
| DOI: | 10.3389/fpsyt.2020.00156 |