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The gut microbiome in children with mood, anxiety, and neurodevelopmental disorders: An umbrella review

Kaitlin Romano1, Ashka N Shah2, Anett Schumacher3

  • 1Dalla Lana School of Public Health, University of Toronto, Toronto, ON, Canada.

Gut Microbiome (Cambridge, England)
|September 19, 2024
PubMed

Insights

Research shows a link between the gut microbiome and mental health in children. Specific gut bacteria are associated with autism spectrum disorder (ASD), and probiotics may help improve ASD symptoms.

Area of Science:

  • Pediatric mental health
  • Gut microbiome research
  • Evidence synthesis

Background:

  • Growing research links the gut microbiome to mental health in children and adolescents.
  • Current evidence syntheses require amalgamation to guide future research directions.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To provide a high-level overview of current evidence syntheses on the gut microbiome and mental health in pediatric populations.
  • To identify research gaps and inform future study directions.

Main Methods:

  • Umbrella review of peer-reviewed pediatric (<18 years) review literature.
  • Searches conducted across seven databases.
  • Included studies reporting gut microbiome composition or biotic supplementation effects on depression, bipolar disorder, anxiety, ADHD, ASD, or OCD.

Main Results:

  • 39 review studies were included; 92% focused on autism spectrum disorder (ASD).
  • Methodological quality was low or critically low for over half of the reviews.
  • Higher abundance of Clostridium and lower abundance of Bifidobacterium were consistently observed in ASD studies.
  • Biotic supplementation showed association with ASD symptom improvement.

Conclusions:

  • Preliminary evidence suggests an association between specific gut microbiota and ASD symptoms.
  • Some evidence supports the role of probiotic supplementation in ASD therapy.
  • Evidence syntheses on the gut microbiome and mental health for pediatric depression, anxiety, bipolar disorder, and OCD are lacking.

Keywords:
autismchildren and adolescentsmental healthmicrobiomeumbrella review

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