ReviewAdvances in nutrition (Bethesda, Md.)2020
The Role of the Gut Microbiota in Dietary Interventions for Depression and Anxiety.
Review in Advances in nutrition (Bethesda, Md.), 2020. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 122 papers, 4 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
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Who cites it
122 citing papers in PubMed, 4 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 222 citations in OpenAlex.
- Pooled it
- Influence of Inflammation, Gut Microbiota, and Stress on Cognition and Oral Health Therapies.Current Alzheimer research · 2025Pooled it
- Pooled it
- Augmenting Clinical Interventions in Psychiatric Disorders: Systematic Review and Update on Nutrition.Frontiers in psychiatry · 2021Pooled it
- Nutritional Stunting Is Linked to Reduced Oral Microbiome Stability and Reconfigured Microbial Networks in Children: A Pilot Intervention Study.Pathogens (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026Trial
- Trial
- Associations of Mediterranean diet with psychological ill-being and well-being throughout the pregnancy course: The GESTAFIT project.Quality of life research : an international journal of quality of life aspects of treatment, care and rehabilitation · 2022Trial
- The Tryptophan-Kynurenine Pathway as a Key Mediator of the Gut-Brain Axis in Depression and Alzheimer's Disease.International journal of molecular sciences · 2026Review
- Ethnobotanical Uses and Phytochemical, Pharmacological, Behavioral, and Toxicological Effects ofMolecules (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026Review
- A human-derived Bacteroides strain attenuates depressive-like behavior in a rat model of social defeat-induced stress.BMC medicine · 2026Article
- Higher dietary diversity is inversely associated with antenatal anxiety, depression, and their comorbid symptoms: a population-based cross-sectional study in Southwest China.European journal of nutrition · 2026Article
- Dynamic changes of gut microbiota during progression of three Alzheimer's disease mice models.Frontiers in neuroscience · 2026Article
- Chinese healthy eating index as a measure of diet quality and its association with depression and anxiety symptoms among people living with HIV: a cross-sectional study in China.Frontiers in nutrition · 2026Article
- War, diet, and PTSD in Ukrainian youth.Scientific reports · 2025Article
- The Aging Gut-Brain Axis: Effects of Dietary Polyphenols and Metal Exposure.Chronic diseases and translational medicine · 2025Review
- Nutritional Modulation of the Gut Microbiome in Relation to Prenatal Lead-Induced Neurotoxicity: A Review.Nutrients · 2025Review
- The dysbiosis of gut microbiota in major depressive disorder and comorbidity with overweight/obesity: unraveling biomarkers and metabolic pathways from a microbial perspective.BMC psychiatry · 2025Article
- Review
- Gut Microbiota in Psychiatric and Neurological Disorders: Current Insights and Therapeutic Implications.Biomedicines · 2025Review
- Review
62 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
6 authors at 3 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
There is emerging evidence that an unhealthy dietary pattern may increase the risk of developing depression or anxiety, whereas a healthy dietary pattern may decrease it. This nascent research suggests that dietary interventions could help prevent, or be an alternative or adjunct therapy for, depression and anxiety. The relation, however, is complex, affected by many confounding variables, and is also likely to be bidirectional, with dietary choices being affected by stress and depression. This complexity is reflected in the data, with sometimes conflicting results among studies. As the research evolves, all characteristics of the relation need to be considered to ensure that we obtain a full understanding, which can potentially be translated into clinical practice. A parallel and fast-growing body of research shows that the gut microbiota is linked with the brain in a bidirectional relation, commonly termed the microbiome-gut-brain axis. Preclinical evidence suggests that this axis plays a key role in the regulation of brain function and behavior. In this review we discuss possible reasons for the conflicting results in diet-mood research, and present examples of areas of the diet-mood relation in which the gut microbiota is likely to be involved, potentially explaining some of the conflicting results from diet and depression studies. We argue that because diet is one of the most significant factors that affects human gut microbiota structure and function, nutritional intervention studies need to consider the gut microbiota as an essential piece of the puzzle.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.