ReviewHealthcare (Basel, Switzerland)2022
Efficacy of Direct or Indirect Use of Probiotics for the Improvement of Maternal Depression during Pregnancy and in the Postnatal Period: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis.
Review in Healthcare (Basel, Switzerland), 2022. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 13 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
13 citing papers in PubMed, 3 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 18 citations in OpenAlex.
- Prebiotics, probiotics, and synbiotics and maternal mental health during pregnancy and postpartum period: a systematic review.Frontiers in nutrition · 2026Pooled it
- Canadian Network for Mood and Anxiety Treatments 2024 Clinical Practice Guideline for the Management of Perinatal Mood, Anxiety, and Related Disorders: Guide de pratique 2024 du Canadian Network for Mood and Anxiety Treatments pour le traitement des troubles de l'humeur, des troubles anxieux et des troubles connexes périnatals.Canadian journal of psychiatry. Revue canadienne de psychiatrie · 2025Guideline
- Impact of probiotic on anxiety and depression symptoms in pregnant and lactating women and microbiota of infants: A systematic review and meta-analysis.Journal of global health · 2023Pooled it
- The effect of Lactobacillus casei on postpartum depression: a randomized controlled trial.BMC psychiatry · 2025Trial
- The Effect of Probiotics on Health in Pregnancy and Infants: A Randomized, Double-Blind, Placebo-Controlled Trial.Nutrients · 2025Trial
- The impact of ingestion of Bifidobacterium longum NCC3001 on perinatal anxiety and depressive symptoms: a randomized controlled trial.Scientific reports · 2025Trial
- PRO-DEMET Randomized Controlled Trial on Probiotics in Depression-Pilot Study Results.Nutrients · 2023Trial
- "Attacking" the Gut-Brain Axis with Psychobiotics: An Umbrella Review of Depressive and Anxiety Symptoms.Pharmaceuticals (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026Review
- Gut Health for Two: the Critical Role of Probiotics and Prebiotics in Pregnancy and Lactation.Current nutrition reports · 2025Review
- The microbiome as a modulator of neurological health across the maternal-offspring interface.The Journal of clinical investigation · 2025Review
- Article
- Article
- Inflammatory pathophysiological mechanisms implicated in postpartum depression.Frontiers in pharmacology · 2022Review
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
7 authors at 3 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
The mother and infant form a unique bond, with maternal mental health affecting the interactions with the infant and infant behaviours impacting maternal mental health. One of the possible mechanisms influencing maternal mental health is the manipulation of the gut-brain axis by consuming probiotic supplements. Probiotics can also have an indirect influence on maternal mental health via the modulation of the infant microbiome and consequently improving the infant's health and thus, indirectly leading to an improvement in maternal mood. This systematic review evaluated the efficacy of probiotics on maternal mental health by searching for randomised controlled trials via international databases: Cochrane Library, PubMed, Scopus, ScienceDirect, and Web of Science until January 2022. A meta-analysis was performed using the Cochrane Collaboration methodology where possible. We found seven clinical trials that included the word probiotics and addressed maternal depression and/or anxiety. Of these, five trials investigated the influence of maternal probiotic supplementation on the gut-brain axis. Two trials investigated the indirect influence of probiotics on maternal depression via supplementation of probiotics by infants and subsequent influence on the crying of colicky infants. Meta-analysis of two studies of pregnant and postnatal women and two studies of infants consuming probiotics on the outcome of the Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale for mothers showed no statistical difference. The findings indicate that maternal depression is very complex and is influenced by various bidirectional factors. One of the factors that can improve maternal mental health is probiotics, however, careful consideration must be given to correct strain selection as strain-specific effectiveness was observed. Further well-designed, robust clinical studies are warranted.
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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.