Dr. Karina Rosales Ortiz is a nutritionist who does research at the Department of Psychiatry, Vall d'Hebron Research Institute (VHIR) in Barcelona, Spain. She is investigating the effects of food patterns on adults with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD).
Maladaptive or uncontrolled impulsivity and compulsivity lead to emotional and social maladjustment, e.g. addiction and crime, and underlie psychiatric disorders. Recently, alterations in microbiota composition have shown to have implications for brain and social behaviors as we have been explaining in our lasts blogs. The microbiota-gut-brain axis may be involved in this process but the mechanisms are not fully identified (1). The supplementation of probiotics can modulate the microbial community and now has been suspected to contribute to ameliorating symptoms of a psychiatric disease with possible influence on social behaviors (2). To date, no randomized controlled trial has been performed to establish feasibility and efficacy of this intervention targeting the reduction of impulsivity and compulsivity. This gave us the idea to perform a study to investigate the effects of supplementation with probiotics can have in adults with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) and Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD) which in most cases present high levels of impulsivity, compulsivity and aggression.
We call our project PROBIA, which is an acronym of “PROBiotics for Impulsivity in Adults”. This study will be performed in three centers of Europe including, Goethe University in Frankfurt, Semmelweis University in Budapest and Vall d’Hebron Research Institute (VHIR) in Barcelona which is the one coordinating the clinical trial. We are planning to start recruiting patients in January of 2019 and obtain the results in 2021. In our study, we will explore the effects of probiotics by measuring the change in ADHD or BPD symptoms, general psychopathology, health-related quality of life, neurocognitive function, nutritional intake, and physical fitness. The effect of the intervention on the microbiome, epigenetics, blood biomarkers, and health will be also explored by collecting blood, stool, and saliva samples.
We are looking forward to having the results of this amazing study in order to understand the mechanisms involved in the crosstalk between intestinal microbiome and brain. If improvement effects can be established in these patients, new cost-effective treatment will be available this population.
This was co-authored by Josep Antoni Ramos-Quiroga, MD PhD psychiatrist and Head of Department of Psychiatry at Hospital Universitari Vall d’Hebron in Barcelona, Spain. He is also professor at Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona.
Reference
1. Desbonnet L, Clarke G, Shanahan F, Dinan TG, Cryan JF. Microbiota is essential for social development in the mouse. Mol Psychiatry [Internet]. The Author(s); 2013 May 21;19:146
2. Felice VD, O SM. The microbiome and disorders of the central nervous system. 2017 [cited 2017 Oct 16].