Probiotics in human mental health and diseases—A minireview
Open accessAbstract
In humans, cognitive functions are controlled by the central nervous system, which is controlled by the brain. Any damage to the neuronal system causes serious impairment to the host as it may lead to neurodegenerative diseases like Parkinson’s, Alzheimer’s, autism and epilepsy. The physical and mental health of an individual is associated with food habits and brain health. The hypothalamus is the region of the brain that initiates a response to different types of stress. However, recent findings have revealed that food play a major role in regulating stress and mental health. In this regard, probiotics are beneficial microbes that are claimed to offer health benefits when consumed in adequate quantities. Probiotics alter the gut microbial composition in a positive way. Several in vitro, in vivo and pre-clinical studies have been conducted to determine the effects of probiotics or probiotic based food supplementation on the cognitive function of model system and human volunteers. Most of the studies suggest that the consumption of probiotic formulations improves cognitive function, stress management, and decision-making. This paper reviews recent findings regarding the influence of probiotic supplementation on cognitive function, especially in human subjects. The role of probiotics in maintaining healthy gut microbiota and detailed outcomes of clinical trials are here reported for easy understanding of the concept. However, more studies involving clinical trials are still required in the field of probiotics and cognitive function.
The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.
Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.
Integrity signals
Registry
Cites
Statistics
Claims the paper makes
The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.
Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.
Claims other papers make about this one
Each is checked against this paper’s own text: does it say what the citing paper says it does?
Probiotics improve mental health via the gut-brain axis.
“In addition to modulating the immune system, the positive health effects of taking probiotics include: the improvement of lactose tolerance and digestion [199,205], the prevention and treatment of gastrointestinal infections [206], the prevention of colorectal cancer [203,207], reduction in blood cholesterol levels [208,209,210], and the improvement of mental health via the gut-brain axis [211].”
From Lactic Acid Bacteria in Raw-Milk Cheeses: From Starter Cultures to Probiotic Functions (2022) · cites this paper as [211]
The Introduction links gut–brain communication to possible mental-health therapies, and the Clinical trials section reports improved mood or depression measures with some probiotic formulations. But that section also reports trials with no significant benefit for mood disorders or depression symptoms. The unqualified claim that probiotics improve mental health overstates the review’s mixed findings. (LLM, conf=0.85)
Experimental — accuracy not yet measured
Self-check
Percentages, sums and reported differences re-computed from the paper’s own numbers.
The self-check needs the paper’s full text.
The citation lists haven’t been fetched yet
References 40 · Cited by 44
Research works printed but not linked: 6
- Sivamaruthi BS, Kesika P, Chaiyasut C. Probiotic based therapy for atopic dermatitis: outcomes of clinical studies -A mini review. Asian Pac J Trop Biomed 2018; 8(6): 328-332.
- Malan-Muller S, Valles-Colomer M, Raes J, Lowry CA, Seedat S, Hemmings SMJ. The gut microbiome and mental health: Implications for anxiety-and trauma- related disorders. OMICS 2018; 22(2): 90-107.
- Holzer P, Farzi A. Neuropeptides and the microbiota-gut- brain axis. In: Lyte, Mark, Cryan, John, editors. Microbial endocrinology: The microbiota-gut-brain axis in health and disease. Advances in Experimental Medicine and Biology. 1st ed. New York: Springer; 2014. Vol 817. p 195-219.
- Buffington SA, Di Prisco GV, Auchtung TA, Ajami NJ, Petrosino JF, Costa-Mattioli M Microbial reconstitution reverses maternal diet-induced social and synaptic deficits in offspring. Cell 2016; 165(7): 1762-1775.
- Bercik P, Denou E, Collins J, Jackson W, Lu J, Jury J, Deng Y, Blennerhassett P, Macri J, McCoy KD, et al. The intestinal microbiota affect central levels of brain- derived neurotropic factor and behavior in mice. Gastroenterology 2011; 141(2): 599-609.
- Steenbergen L, Sellaro R, van Hemert S, Bosch JA, Colzato LS. A randomized controlled trial to test the effect of multispecies probiotics on cognitive reactivity to sad mood. Brain Behav Immun 2015; 48: 258-264.
- Authors
- Sivamaruthi, B. S., Prasanth, M. I., Kesika, P., & Chaiyasut, C.
- Affiliations
- Chiang Mai University (TH)
- Chulalongkorn University (TH)
- Corresponding author
- Chaiyasut, Chaiyavat
- Venue
- Tropical Journal of Pharmaceutical Research
- Publisher
- African Journals Online (AJOL)
- Published
- 2021-05-24
- Volume
- 18
- Issue
- 4
- Pages
- 889-895
- ISSN
- 1596-5996 (ISSN-L)
- 1596-9827
- OpenAlex
- W3164274259
- Cited by
- 44
- References
- 40
- Citations by year
- 2026: 8 · 2025: 6 · 2024: 7 · 2023: 4 · 2022: 6 · 2021: 2 · 2020: 7 · 2019: 4
- FWCI
- 2.83
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- gold
- doi.org
- Licence
- cc-by
- Locations
- Tropical Journal of Pharmaceutical Research (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- Greater South Information System
- Funders
- Chiang Mai University
- Chulalongkorn University
- Topics
- Life Sciences › Agricultural and Biological Sciences › Food Science › Probiotics and Fermented Foods
- Life Sciences › Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology › Molecular Biology › Gut microbiota and health
- Life Sciences › Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology › Molecular Biology › Protein Hydrolysis and Bioactive Peptides
- Keywords
- probiotics, cognitive function, gut microbiota, mental health, stress management, neurodegenerative diseases, Alzheimer's disease, Parkinson's disease, autism spectrum disorder, epilepsy, dietary supplementation, hypothalamus, clinical trials
About these checks
Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.
Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.
Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.
What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›
Are you an author, or do you see a problem with this page? Request a review
