益生菌能帮助抑郁症吗?新的研究表明两者之间存在联系

益生菌能帮助抑郁症吗?新的研究表明两者之间存在联系

A gut-wrenching experience. Butterflies in your stomach.

一种撕心裂肺的痛苦体验。心里七上八下。

Many of us instinctively feel the connection between our gut and our brain. That connection and how the range of bacteria residing in our digestive tract -- our microbiome -- might help treat mental illness has become a field of interest for scientists in recent years.

我们很多人本能地感觉到我们的肠胃和大脑之间的联系。近年来，科学家们对这种联系以及在我们消化道中的细菌——我们的微生物群——可能有助于治疗精神疾病而感兴趣。

A new review of medical literature has suggested that probiotics -- foods or supplements containing microbes thought to exert a positive influence on our gut -- could help ease depression.

一项新的医学文献综述表明，益生菌——含有被认为对肠道有积极影响的微生物的食物或补充剂——可以帮助缓解抑郁。

"This is good quality research but it is a review of relatively preliminary data," Allan Young, a professor of mood disorders at the Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology & Neuroscience, King's College London, told the Science Media Centre in London.

“这是一项高质量的研究，但它只是对相对初步数据的综述，”伦敦国王学院精神病学、心理学和神经科学研究所情绪障碍教授艾伦·杨告诉伦敦科学媒体中心。

"So while this systematic review of the research literature supports the notion that probiotics may be helpful for people with anxiety and depression, more research is needed. These data do make a case for larger trials to be carried out," said Young, who wasn't involved in the review.

“因此，虽然这项对研究文献的系统回顾支持了这样一个观点，即益生菌可能对焦虑和抑郁的人有帮助，但还需要更多的研究。这些数据确实为开展更大规模的试验提供了依据，”杨说，他没有参与审查。

The researchers from the University of Brighton and Croydon University Hospital in the United Kingdom looked at 71 studies published between 2003 and 2019 that looked at how probiotics, and prebiotics, compounds that help probiotics flourish, may help adults with depression and/or anxiety disorders.

来自英国布莱顿大学和克罗伊登大学医院的研究人员调查了2003年至2019年间发表的71项研究，这些研究着眼于益生菌和益生元(有助于益生菌生长的化合物)如何帮助患有抑郁症和(或)焦虑症的成年人。

The researchers said their review had several caveats: None of the included studies lasted very long; and the number of participants in each was small.

研究人员表示，他们的综述有几点注意事项:包括在内的研究都没有持续很长时间，而且每个项目的参与者都很少。

This made it difficult to draw any firm conclusions about the overall effects, how long they lasted and whether there might be any unwanted side effects associated with prolonged use, they said.

他们说，这使得很难就整体效果、持续时间以及是否有任何与长期使用相关的副作用得出明确的结论。

David Curtis, a retired consultant psychiatrist and an honorary professor at University College London, said that it was unlikely that probiotics would have an effect on mood.

退休的精神病顾问和伦敦大学学院的名誉教授大卫·柯蒂斯说，益生菌不太可能对情绪产生影响。

"Although these published studies claim to show some benefits of probiotics on depression, we have no idea whether there were other studies which showed no effect which were not published," he told the SMC.

他告诉SMC:“尽管这些已发表的研究声称益生菌对抑郁症有一些好处，但我们不知道是否还有其他没有发表的研究表明益生菌没有效果。”

"People with depression should seek medical advice and not try to treat themselves with dietary supplements, which are not of proven benefit."

“抑郁症患者应该寻求医疗建议，而不是试图用膳食补充剂来治疗自己，因为这并没有被证明是有益的。”

The review, which published on Monday in the journal BMJ Nutrition, Prevention & Health, said exactly how probiotics could ease depression was unknown, but the researchers suggested the effect could be twofold.

周一发表在《英国医学杂志营养、预防和健康》上的这篇综述称，益生菌究竟能如何缓解抑郁症还不得而知，但研究人员表示，其效果可能是双重的。

Firstly, probiotics may help reduce the production of inflammatory chemicals, such as cytokines, or they may help direct the action of tryptophan, a chemical thought to be important in the gut-brain axis in psychiatric disorders.

首先，益生菌可能有助于减少炎症性化学物质的产生，比如细胞因子，或者它们可能有助于指导色氨酸的作用，色氨酸被认为是一种在精神疾病的肠-脑轴中很重要的化学物质。

Secondly, people with depression also often have other underlying conditions, such as impaired insulin production and irritable bowel syndrome, and probiotics may influence how a person experiences depression by alleviating these conditions.

其次，抑郁症患者通常还有其他潜在的疾病，比如胰岛素分泌受损和肠易激综合症，益生菌可以通过缓解这些疾病来影响人们对抑郁症的感受。

However, the case for the use of probiotics in the treatment of digestive disorders isn't clear.

然而，使用益生菌治疗消化系统疾病的情况尚不清楚。