El proper 22 de maig a les 12 h l'Aula 14 Dolors Aleu i Riera del Campus Clínic acollirà un nou seminari del Cicle Continuat de Conferències de la Facultat de Medicina i Ciències de la Salut.
El seminari titulat "The Potential of a short-term, high-dose probiotic supplementation as add-on therapy in depression” i serà a càrrec de la Dra. Else Johanna Schneider, Senior researcher at the Center for Affective, Stress and Sleep Disorders at the University Psychiatric Clinics Basel (Switzerland), l' encarregat d'aquesta xerrada és el Dr. Albert Giralt.
Aquest seminari s'adreça a tot el PDI de la Facultat de Medicina i Ciències de la Salut i als centres de recerca de Barcelona i no cal inscripció prèvia per assistir-hi.
A continuació, una breu sinopsi dels temes que abordarà la Dra. Schneider durant al sessió:
"Depression affects more than 256 million people worldwide and accounts for around 40% of disability-adjusted life years caused by mental health problems, but its treatment with antidepressants is still suboptimal (only one third of patients respond adequately). Acknowledging the public burden caused by depression, depression treatment becomes a global challenge and there is a clear demand for identifying new and effective treatment options. Recently, the gut-brain axis has evolved as a promising treatment approach for depression since changes in the gut microbiome (the community of microorganisms that live in the human gut) have been linked to stress-related behaviour and depression.
In a randomized controlled trial with depressed inpatients, we investigated the potential of a probiotic supplementation as add-on intervention to the treatment as usual on all levels of the gut-brain axis, ie. the gut microbiota, the brain and behavior. We could demonstrate that the additional intake of probiotics reduced depressive and cognitive symptoms significantly more than the treatment as usual alone. Probiotic supplementation positively changed the gut microbiome, the immune activation and brain structure and activity. The changes in the gut microbiome, the immune activation and brain activity correlated partially with the improvement in symptoms, which can be seen as indication for possible mechanisms of action of the probiotics. The present findings highlight the role of the microbiota-gut-brain axis in depression and emphasize the potential of adjuvant microbiota-related treatment approaches as accessible, pragmatic, and non-stigmatizing therapies to improve the effectiveness of current treatments in depression."
