Unraveling the role of the microbiome in major depressive disorder

Unraveling the role of the microbiome in major depressive disorder(journals.lww.com)

96 points by eightysteele 5 years ago | 31 comments

taurath 5 years ago |

Any thought on imalanced microbiome being a second order effect rather than a cause? I’d guess continued stress responses from the nervous system could cause chronic gut problems

jcoq 5 years ago | |

Every time a scientific article "x may cause y" is posted, there are a couple dozen "correlation does not equal causation" retorts, as if the researchers involved were unaware of this exceedingly basic and elementary principle.

It's such a waste of comment - an intellectual platitude. Can you point specifically to how this research is flawed, or how alternative research offers a better explanation?

pcdoodle 5 years ago | | |

You’re right. Annoying for sure.

kelsolaar 5 years ago | |

Which could then induce depressive disorder and thus some sort of feedback loop?

xll64 5 years ago |

It seems that microbiome research is always defended here. Perhaps it is scientific, but be aware that a multi billion dollar industry depends on "improving" the microbiome.

Here's an ad in nature.com:

https://www.nature.com/articles/d42473-019-00336-9

slothtrop 5 years ago | |

I wouldn't necessarily equivocate all of that research. Very little of it, even in the realm of dietary impact, has to do with probiotics, and the research that does focus on probiotics largely doesn't suggest a lasting impact on the microbiome.

Notwithstanding that there may be health benefits to probiotic consumption.

bcpl2000 5 years ago | | |

That is how we here think, but for covert advertising it is sufficient to get the word "microbiome" in the news as often as possible and to stress that it's important.

The average consumer does not read probiotics research, all that sticks is "Microbiome causes X, probiotics should fix it!".

maroonblazer 5 years ago | |

Indeed, the paper in question here was sponsored by grants to the APC Microbiome Institute. Not that that means the work isn't solid, but it's certainly something to bear in mind while reading.

im3w1l 5 years ago | |

The other year they were saying autism was related to the microbiome. That got too-good-to-be-true alarm bells ringing in my head for sure.

caddemon 5 years ago | | |

There is a lot of evidence it is related, however that's not the same thing of course as being able to modulate symptoms via the microbiome (that one poop transplant study was extremely preliminary). I think the jury is still out on that latter idea, but current probiotics surely have no effect. I hope that as this line of research continues industry will adapt and we will start to see probiotics that are A) better at actually populating the gut and B) personalized.

theptip 5 years ago | | |

That research is still ongoing and getting funded, eg https://science.oregonstate.edu/IMPACT/2019/05/microbiologis...

flybrand 5 years ago |

Depression is a symptom of celiac disease, which is a result of gluten in the diet, another symptom of which is poor gut Microbiome health.

I bring up Celiac because 1/ I have it, and 2/ there is very little medical doubt / uncertainty / controversy about the disease.

alacombe 5 years ago | |

Hasty generalization fallacy right here.

Ovah 5 years ago | |

Technically speaking depression is not a symptom. It's diagnosis in its own right.

ohiovr 5 years ago |

The endocrine system can have an out sized impact on mental health.