Seven Resources on Treating Seasonal Affective Disorder with Integrative Medicine

Probiotics Relieve Depression

Depressive symptoms decreased in all participants. These general improvements are likely due to the antidepressant treatments that they all received.

There was a significantly greater improvement in the subjects taking probiotics than in the placebo group. In addition, the composition of their intestinal flora changed, at least temporarily: In the probiotic group, an analysis of stool samples revealed an increase in lactic acid bacteria at the end of treatment, and the amount of this increase correlated with the degree of reduction in depressive symptoms.

Alpha-diversity measures showed no significant changes over time, neither in the probiotics group nor in the placebo. However, when investigators compared the 2 study groups at postintervention and follow-up, the probiotic group maintained diversity while the placebo group’s diversity was reduced in inversed Simpson, Pielou’s evenness, and Shannon index but not in observed richness.

Taking the probiotic did increase the presence of the genus Lactobacillus present in the intervention group. This increase in abundance of Lactobacillus showed an inverse association with the HAM-D and BDI scores of the participants. In contrast, Lactobacilli counts also showed a significant positive association with the GSRS, suggesting greater levels of gastric discomfort from taking high-dose probiotics. However, the GSRS decreased over time, suggesting that as the Lactobacillus population increased, gastric distress symptoms decreased.

Taking probiotics changed brain activity on fMRI. When patients are shown images of neutral or fearful faces, there is a discernable difference in depressed patients on fMRI. Probiotic treatment of the depressed people in this study normalized their scan results.

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