Study Discovers Link Between Gut Bacteria, Mental Health Conditions

A new study conducted by researchers at the Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology and Neuroscience has discovered an overlapping environment in the gut microbiota of individuals living with mental health conditions such as anxiety, bipolar disorder and depression.

Bipolar disorder is a disorder that has been linked to extreme mood swings, which range from manic and emotional highs to depressive lows. On the other hand, gut bacteria is a community of microorganisms that dwell in the human gastrointestinal tract. This includes other microorganism types, as well as viruses, bacteria and fungi.

Prior research has highlighted the important role gut bacteria plays in mental illness development.

The King’s College London study, which was reported in “JAMA Psychiatry,” discovered that individuals with these illnesses had a higher probability of lacking anti-inflammatory producing bacteria and instead have higher amounts of pro-inflammatory bacteria.

For their research, the scientists carried out a meta-analysis of more than 50 case-controlled studies, with the objective being to examine changes in the gut microbiome of individuals. They discovered that individuals with psychosis, bipolar disorder, anxiety and depression had lower levels of coprococcus and faecalibacterium. These are types of bacteria that possess anti-inflammatory effects within the gut.

The researchers then carried out further analysis, which found that people living with these conditions had higher levels of a certain bacterium which possesses pro-inflammatory effects, known as Eggerthella.

The first author of the study, Viktoriya Nikolova, stated that the researchers had discovered that there was a considerable overlap between the prevalence of mental health conditions and gut health. He noted that the overlap is particularly relevant with regard to the predominance of specific pro-inflammatory bacteria in comparison with anti-inflammatory bacteria, adding that they were yet to establish biomarkers for certain illnesses.

In addition to this, lead researcher of the study Professor Allan Young stated that the study review was the first to evaluate changes in the gut bacteria with regard to a range of mental health conditions and assess their potential as biomarkers. He explained that their findings showed that changes in gut microbiota composition were extensive, noting that there was some indication of how gut bacteria was associated with some known underlying mechanisms of psychiatric disorders, like inflammatory processes regulation.

Young added that it had become increasingly clear that gut microbiome health was important to the mental health of people. The study suggests that more awareness of gut health should be taken into account in the treatment of mental health conditions.

As a result of an increase in the cases of mental health conditions such as depression, companies such as Cybin Inc. (NYSE American: CYBN) (NEO: CYBN) are looking to develop a new class of psychiatric medicines that will be a lot more effective than the existing remedies.

NOTE TO INVESTORS: The latest news and updates relating to Cybin Inc. (NEO: CYBN) (NYSE American: CYBN) are available in the company’s newsroom at https://ibn.fm/CYBN

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