Latest / Hardiness with Dr Paul Taylor / Wisdom Wednesdays: The Efficacy of Probiotic Supplements VS Anti-depressants For Major Depressive Disorder

Transcript

Wisdom Wednesdays: The Efficacy of Probiotic Supplements VS Anti-depressants For Major Depressive Disorder · Hardiness with Dr Paul Taylor

• 0:09
  Speaker 1: Hey, everybody, Welcome to another edition of Wisdom Wednesdays. This week,
• 0:13
  Speaker 1: I want to talk about a research paper that has
• 0:17
  Speaker 1: recently been published in the Journal and Nutritional Reviews, and
• 0:22
  Speaker 1: the title is Probiotics for Adults with Major Depressive Disorder
• 0:26
  Speaker 1: Compared with Antidepressants. A Systematic review and network meta Analysis.
• 0:32
  Speaker 1: So what they did for this was the researchers screened
• 0:36
  Speaker 1: a whole heap of published articles and they looked at
• 0:40
  Speaker 1: six different databases of publications for clinical trials that had
• 0:46
  Speaker 1: to be double blinded randomized control trials, so really good,
• 0:51
  Speaker 1: well designed studies were the individuals didn't know whether they
• 0:55
  Speaker 1: were having a placebo and the researchers didn't know where
• 0:58
  Speaker 1: they were having a placebo as well. Looking at published
• 1:00
  Speaker 1: articles between twenty fifteen and twenty twenty two, and they
• 1:05
  Speaker 1: ended up having at twenty two interventions that were identified
• 1:10
  Speaker 1: and sixteen of those find that there was effectiveness in
• 1:14
  Speaker 1: the treatment of major depressive disorders. But whenever they compared them,
• 1:19
  Speaker 1: what they find was that the probiotics, which I will
• 1:24
  Speaker 1: talk about in a second, but the probiotics had a
• 1:27
  Speaker 1: moderate effects size. So we know that antidepressants generally, when
• 1:32
  Speaker 1: you look at all of the studies, they tend to
• 1:34
  Speaker 1: have a small effects size. Now what that means is
• 1:38
  Speaker 1: that they are marginally more effective than placebo. Now that
• 1:41
  Speaker 1: doesn't mean they're not effective. It just means they're marginally
• 1:45
  Speaker 1: better than placebo. Because we know that when you give
• 1:47
  Speaker 1: people placebo, quite a few people respond, So a small.
• 1:52
  Speaker 2: Effects size generally is not great. But the probiotics in
• 1:57
  Speaker 2: this case had a moderate effects size, and they were
• 2:01
  Speaker 2: estimated to be more effective than about six different antidepressant medications,
• 2:07
  Speaker 2: as well as ketamine. And then there was one study
• 2:10
  Speaker 2: that had a combination of an SSRI and probiotics and
• 2:14
  Speaker 2: that was the most effective of all. Now, the limitations
• 2:19
  Speaker 2: here are that no studies actually comparerred the probiotics versus
• 2:25
  Speaker 2: the SSRI. They were all evaluated independently, and there's obviously
• 2:30
  Speaker 2: a bit of a risk of bias. But I think
• 2:33
  Speaker 2: this is pretty bloody good news because we know that
• 2:38
  Speaker 2: antidepressants have a long list of side effects and withdrawal effects.
• 2:43
  Speaker 2: And I'm about to read an article and will probably
• 2:46
  Speaker 2: do a podcast on this. Certainly when you survey people
• 2:50
  Speaker 2: who've been on them, and the list of side effects
• 2:53
  Speaker 2: and withdrawal syntomes are way way more than the published
• 2:58
  Speaker 2: data from the drug companies when they were originally produced,
• 3:02
  Speaker 2: because they didn't ask for a lot of these different
• 3:05
  Speaker 2: side effects. And if you don't ask, you don't see anything.
• 3:08
  Speaker 2: And we know that probiotics have no side effects are
• 3:12
  Speaker 2: very very little and potential side effects. And this just
• 3:16
  Speaker 2: goes to show the impact that the gut microbiome actually
• 3:21
  Speaker 2: has on our mental health. And this is through the
• 3:23
  Speaker 2: gut brain access and we are seeing more and more
• 3:27
  Speaker 2: that the health of our microbiome and particularly the composition
• 3:32
  Speaker 2: of that microbiome is pretty key for both our physical
• 3:35
  Speaker 2: health and our mental health. So the probiotics that were
• 3:39
  Speaker 2: used in these different studies there was different combinations. They
• 3:42
  Speaker 2: included Lactobacillus, Bifidobacterium, and Bacillus species, and the conclusion of
• 3:51
  Speaker 2: the researchers was that probiotics, compared with antidepressants and placebo,
• 3:55
  Speaker 2: may be efficacious as an adjunct or stand alone therapy
• 4:00
  Speaker 2: for treating major depressive disorder. Now, I think this is
• 4:04
  Speaker 2: really good news for all the people out there who
• 4:06
  Speaker 2: are struggling with their mental health, and hopefully we will
• 4:10
  Speaker 2: see a time not too far off where you will
• 4:13
  Speaker 2: go to the doctor or a psychiatrist and be given
• 4:16
  Speaker 2: the option of an antidepressant medication or one of these
• 4:21
  Speaker 2: different probiotics, and ideally you would also be advised of
• 4:26
  Speaker 2: the potential side effects and withdrawal effects of both of
• 4:30
  Speaker 2: these different treatment plants. So that's it for this week, folks,
• 4:34
  Speaker 2: catch you next time.