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Michael Brendler
Do the trillions of bacteria in our gut affect our mood? Does the composition of the microbiome in the digestive tract influence whether people struggle with mental illness? There are numerous studies that point to such a connection. The problem: they are all very small, contain a maximum of 60 subjects, and therefore do not provide convincing answers according to scientific standards. The best indication so far that there might be something to these theses has been provided by an animal experiment: eight years ago, Irish scientists reported in the journal Journal of Psychiatric Research: If the gut microbiomes of depression patients are transplanted into rats, the animals later behave more listlessly and anxious.