Trial reportNeuropsychopharmacology : official publication of the American College of Neuropsychopharmacology2020
Colon-delivered short-chain fatty acids attenuate the cortisol response to psychosocial stress in healthy men: a randomized, placebo-controlled trial.
Trial report in Neuropsychopharmacology : official publication of the American College of Neuropsychopharmacology, 2020. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 111 papers, 3 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.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
111 citing papers in PubMed, 3 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 179 citations in OpenAlex.
- Butyrate-Producing Bacteria as a Keystone Species of the Gut Microbiome: A Systemic Review of Dietary Impact on Gut-Brain and Host Health.International journal of molecular sciences · 2026Pooled it
- Psychobiotic, nutritional, and behavioral interventions targeting the microbiome-gut-brain axis in depression, anxiety, and stress: a scoping review.Frontiers in nutrition · 2026Pooled it
- Effect of prebiotics, probiotics, and synbiotics on gastrointestinal outcomes in healthy adults and active adults at rest and in response to exercise-A systematic literature review.Frontiers in nutrition · 2022Pooled it
- Efficacy of a postbiotic and its components in promoting colonic transit and alleviating chronic constipation in humans and mice.Cell reports. Medicine · 2025Trial
- Effects of a diverse prebiotic fibre blend on inflammation, the gut microbiota and affective symptoms in metabolic syndrome: a pilot open-label randomised controlled trial.The British journal of nutrition · 2024Trial
- Trial
- Inulin-type fructans and 2'fucosyllactose alter both microbial composition and appear to alleviate stress-induced mood state in a working population compared to placebo (maltodextrin): the EFFICAD Trial, a randomized, controlled trial.The American journal of clinical nutrition · 2023Trial
- Trial
- Not all stress is equal: Examination stress and cortisol reactivity are associated with exploratory species-level variation but not broad restructuring of the gut microbiome.Neurobiology of stress · 2026Article
- Research Progress on Bidirectional Regulation of the Microbiota-Gut-Brain Axis in Autism Spectrum Disorder Based on the Immune-Metabolic-Endocrine Interactive Network.Biomolecules · 2026Review
- Gut-Brain Axis Modulation by Short-Chain Fatty Acids Exerts Disease-Modifying Effects in a Murine Model of Drug-Resistant Epilepsy.Annals of neurology · 2026Article
- Exploring the Relationship Between Sleep Disturbances, Gut Microbiota, and Cognition in Patients with Heart Failure: A Cross-Sectional Study.Medicina (Kaunas, Lithuania) · 2026Article
- The HDAC inhibitor sodium butyrate moderately enhances long-term fear extinction memory retrieval in humans.Molecular psychiatry · 2026Article
- Gut microbiota as key mediators of animal acclimation to temperature changes: mechanisms and interventions.Applied and environmental microbiology · 2026Review
- From association to causality: mechanistic pathways linking the gut microbiome to psychiatric disorders.Translational psychiatry · 2026Review
- The Interactions Between Circadian Rhythm, Gut Microbiota, and Anxiety: From Mechanisms to Intervention Strategies.Nutrients · 2026Review
- Short-Chain Fatty Acids: Bridging Gut Microbiota and Systemic Aging-Mechanisms, Interventions, and Current Challenges.Metabolites · 2026Review
- Gut microbial diversity and inferred capacity to produce short-chain fatty acids are associated with acute stress reactivity in healthy adults.Neurobiology of stress · 2026Article
- Short-chain fatty acid-producing psychobiotics in mood disorders: mechanistic insights into the microbiota-gut-brain axis.Clinical nutrition research · 2026Article
- Amino Acid-Fatty Acid Profile as a Novel Predictive Method in the Assessment of Diagnosis and Treatment Efficacy of Anxiety-Related Disorders and Mood Disorders.International journal of molecular sciences · 2026Review
51 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
5 authors at 2 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Short-chain fatty acids (SCFAs) are products of microbial fermentation of dietary fiber in the colon and may mediate microbiota-gut-brain communication. However, their role in modulating psychobiological processes that underlie the development of stress- and anxiety-related disorders is not mechanistically studied in humans. In this triple-blind, randomized, placebo-controlled intervention trial, we examine in a parallel group design the effects of 1-week colonic SCFA-mixture delivery in doses equivalent to fermentation of 10 g or 20 g of arabinoxylan oligosaccharides on responses to psychosocial stress and fear tasks in 66 healthy men. We demonstrate that low and high doses of SCFAs significantly attenuate the cortisol response to psychosocial stress compared to placebo. Both doses of SCFAs increase serum SCFA levels and this increase in circulating SCFAs co-varies significantly with the attenuation of the cortisol response to psychosocial stress. Colonic SCFA delivery does not modulate fecal SCFA concentrations, serum brain-derived neurotrophic factor, cortisol awakening response, fear learning and extinction, or subjective mood ratings. These results demonstrate that colon-delivered SCFAs modulate hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis reactivity to psychosocial stress, thereby supporting their hypothesized role in microbiota-gut-brain communication.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
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.