NYAPRS Note: An article we covered on Monday noted the rise in interest of the importance of diet on mental health. And not just for recovery and total wellness, but that there is a growing body of evidence that supports the long-held assumption by many recovery advocates that poor diet, vitamin deficiency, and inflammation may actually contribute to the symptoms and biomarkers that lead to even serious diagnoses of mental illness. Below are references to two more studies that look to the body-brain parallel for answers in how mental health is altered and pathologized in our current medical system. While more evidence is necessary to lead clinicians to better-informed practice around nutrition, many are already looking toward a “nutrition-first” policy that would seek to mitigate immediate mental health shocks and stressors in individuals through a change in dietary habits, particularly as diagnosis and prognosis may be dramatically altered by the impact of transformed dietary intake.
Evidence of Gut-to-brain and Brain-to-gut Syndromes
Mad in America; Rob Wipond, 3/5/2015
The pathways of mutual influencing between the gut and the brain are strong, and the ‘next wave of research” may involve deliberate microbial interventions as mental health treatments, according to a review of the scientific literature published in the Australian and New Zealand Journal of Psychiatry.
The Australian researchers did a narrative review and found that, “Population surveys show a strong correlation between anxiety, depression, and functional gastrointestinal disorders, contradicting early suspicions that the high prevalence of anxiety and depression in the clinic was mainly due to neurotic health seeking behaviour.”
They also found that this influence was bidirectional and operated through a variety of distinct biological pathways. “Five and 12 year follow-up shows that psychological distress can predict later onset of a functional gastrointestinal disorder and vice versa,” they wrote.
Observations in animal studies suggested that these relationships could potentially lead to effective interventions. “The ability to control rodent temperament and HPA responsiveness with early modification of gastrointestinal flora, and the effects of early stress on the barrier function of the gastrointestinal tract and flora, suggests an ability of both systems to prime each other in early life for later problems,” they wrote. “This hypothesis seems to be supported by a possible protective effect of a probiotic strain of bacteria in a model of early rat psychological trauma.”
Keightley, Philip C., Natasha A. Koloski, and Nicholas J. Talley. “Pathways in Gut-Brain Communication: Evidence for Distinct Gut-to-Brain and Brain-to-Gut Syndromes.” Australian and New Zealand Journal of Psychiatry 49, no. 3 (March 1, 2015): 207–14. doi:10.1177/0004867415569801. (Abstract)
http://www.madinamerica.com/2015/03/evidence-gut-brain-brain-gut-syndromes/
Growing Interest in Inflammation and Immune Responses as Causes of Mental Disorders
Mad in America; Rob Wipond, 3/5/2015
There is mounting evidence that inflammation and altered immune system responses may be playing important roles in the pathogenesis of psychological distress, including in the etiology of schizophrenia, according to a research review and editorial in The Lancet Psychiatry.
“Contrary to the traditional view that the brain is an immunologically privileged site shielded behind the blood–brain barrier, studies in the past 20 years have noted complex interactions between the immune system, systemic inflammation, and the brain, which can lead to changes in mood, cognition, and behaviour,” stated a team led by University of Cambridge researchers.
“Early in the 20th century, there was great excitement when general paresis of the insane was shown to be due to syphilis and curable with penicillin, inspiring hope that similar organic causes might be found for other types of mental illness,” stated the editorial. “This hope was not realised and for the rest of the century immunology and psychiatry went their separate ways. Now evidence is accumulating that neuroinflammation might after all contribute to some disorders, such as schizophrenia(.)”
The Lancet Psychiatry. “Mind and Antibody: The Return of Immunopsychiatry.” The Lancet Psychiatry 2, no. 3 (n.d.): 191. Accessed March 1, 2015. doi:10.1016/S2215-0366(15)00057-7. (Full text)
Khandaker, Golam M, Lesley Cousins, Julia Deakin, Belinda R Lennox, Robert Yolken, and Peter B Jones. “Inflammation and Immunity in Schizophrenia: Implications for Pathophysiology and Treatment.” The Lancet Psychiatry 2, no. 3 (n.d.): 258–70. Accessed March 1, 2015. doi:10.1016/S2215-0366(14)00122-9. (Abstract)