It turns out the bacteria in your gut may have more to do
with mental health than previously thought. According to a recent article on the Psychology
Today website, probiotics have recently been gaining traction as treatment
in the world of psychiatry. However, probiotics still have a long way to
go before they become standard treatment for ADHD.
Studies Examining
Plausability and Effectiveness
Two studies have been published regarding the role of
probiotics in ADHD treatment. In one
study done by functional medicine
practitioner, Michael R. Lyon, and published in one of his books, 75 children
with ADHD were examined and a majority were found to have high levels of yeast
and pathogenic bacteria, with low levels of beneficial bacteria. The author concluded that probiotics might
play a role in healing ADHD, but did not do a clinical trial to document that
it works.
In a second study, done by in Finland and recently published in Pediatric Research, 75
children were randomized at birth to receive either placebo or Lactobacillus
rhamnosus GG. By the age of 13, 6 out of
75 were diagnosed with ADHD. All of them
were in the placebo group. This data
could be interpreted as meaning that the probiotic prevented development of
ADHD in the treatment group. However, if
that were the case, one would also expect that the prevalence of ADHD in the
entire group would be less than the prevalence of ADHD
in Finland, which it is not. One
would also expect that the prevalence of ADHD in the placebo group would be the same as the background prevalence of ADHD in Finland , which
it also is not. The other issue is that
the probiotics were given to these children as infants as a preventive measure,
not as treatment for ADHD once it was diagnosed, so the study cannot tell us whether later supplementation would be helpful or not.
Studies Examining
Harms of Probiotics
Most studies done on probiotics do not directly assess for
harms, so we do not really know whether or how often side effects occur. Clearly when you are treating someone with
live bacteria, there is always a risk of active infection rather than harmless
colonization. This isn’t such a big risk
in people with developed and healthy immune systems, but could be an issue if
we are talking about treating infants preventatively. There have been case reports of infants with
normal intestines developing blood infections from probiotic supplements. So, even though supplements are available for
infants, there certainly are questions as to whether they are entirely safe for
all infants, especially newborns.
Another issue to be aware of is that some probiotic
supplements contain gluten, which can be a problem for some people with ADHD.
Should You or Shouldn’t
You?
There is little harm in trying probiotics in the form of
yogurt or other fermented foods people normally eat, unless you have a known
sensitivity to the food. Similarly,
taking a probiotic supplement likely will not result in harm as long as the
person taking the supplement has no risk for lower than average immunity and
isn’t taking a supplement containing inactive ingredients to which he or she is
sensitive (ie gluten).
However, in the face of known possibility for harm
(infection) in infants, it is a good idea to avoid probiotic
supplements in infancy until more is known about their safety. Parents who want to be sure
their child is colonized with the right bacteria should still do it the natural
way—skin-to-skin contact with their infant and breastfeeding.
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