Common stomach drugs may trigger depression by disrupting the 'gut-brain axis,' suggests new research.
More and more studies are now pointing to the many shipway in which our gut bacterium may influence some our mental and emotional well-being.
For instance, researchers have found that germ-free mice that had been disadvantaged of beneficial gut bacterium displayed symptoms of anxiety, depression, and psychological feature impairment.
Since the bacterium in our gut can alter the function of our brain by producing certain hormones or neurotransmitters — and emotional responses can, in turn, affect our gut bacterium — it should come as no surprise that some studies have found a link between post-traumatic stress disorder and certain strains of bacterium.
Other studies have not only pinpointed specific bacterium whose absence can trigger symptoms of depression in rodents, but they have besides shown that supplementing aforesaid bacterium can reverse signs of depression.
Now, an experimental study suggests that nucleon pump inhibitors — which are a class of drugs atypically orderd to treat acid-related stomach conditions so much as internal organ reflux illness — increase the risk of developing major depressive disorder.
This is the leading cause of disablement some in the United States and worldwide.
The first author of the new study is Wei-Sheng Huang, from the Department of psychopathology at the Taipei Veterans General Hospital in Taiwan.
Stomach acid pills may disrupt gut-brain axis
Huang and team examined information on 2,366 individuals who had been taking nucleon pump inhibitors and went on to develop depression, and compared them with 9,464 people who besides took the drugs but did not develop depression.
The latter group of participants was "matched for age, sex, enrollment time, end point time, and follow-up period."
The researchers applied logistical regression analysis and adjusted for various demographic factors, as well as for psychiatrical comorbidities so much as anxiety and substance abuse disorders.
The study discovered that, compared with those who did not develop major depressive disorder, "patients with major depression had a lesser prevalence of higher accumulative defined daily dose" of nucleon pump inhibitors.
Specifically, the risk of clinical depression accrued for those who took the drugs pantoprazole, Prevacid, and rabeprazole, piece in those who used Prilosec and esPrilosec, "only a trend significance was noted."
"To our knowledge," write the study authors, "this was the first study to investigate the association between [nucleon pump inhibitor] exposure and the risk of major depression."
piece the mechanisms behind so much an association remain mysterious, the authors venture a couple of possible explanations.
The drugs mightiness raise depression risk by dysregulating the gut-brain axis, they suggest, or by preventing the organism from properly engrossing nutrients after the use of stomach drugs.
Still, the researchers caution that physicians should continue to order the drugs as and when needful, bearing in mind the range of side personal effects that these drugs may have — which include respiratory disease, bone fracture, and GI infections.
Huang and team recommend that future studies investigate the pathophysiology behind the association they found.