Association of Probable Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder with Dietary Pattern and Gut Microbiome in a Cohort of Women

Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) is a psychiatric condition that may occur in people who have experienced or witnessed traumatic events. The microbiota-gut-brain axis has been suggested to play an important role in mental health. Here we analyzed information on trauma exposure and PTSD symptoms with the gut microbiome data and dietary information in 191 individuals enrolled in a substudy of an ongoing longitudinal cohort of women. We demonstrated that higher PTSD symptom levels were associated with less adherence to the Mediterranean diet pattern, and this association was also linked to specific PTSD putative protective species such as Eubacterium eligens. Moreover, the microbial pathways involved in the biosynthesis of pantothenate and coenzyme A were identified as PTSD putative protective, and these pathways were mainly contributed by PTSD putative protective species such as Akkermansia muciniphila. These findings have the potential to inform dietary- or microbiome-based interventions for PTSD prevention or amelioration.