ArticleBMJ mental health2024
Stress and mental health symptoms in early pregnancy are associated with the oral microbiome.
Article in BMJ mental health, 2024. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 18 papers, 2 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
18 citing papers in PubMed, 2 syntheses or guidelines pooled it.
- Inflammatory biomarkers and oral microbiome alterations in depression and anxiety disorders: a systematic review.The world journal of biological psychiatry : the official journal of the World Federation of Societies of Biological Psychiatry · 2026Pooled it
- Oral Health, Anxiety, Depression, and Stress in Pregnancy: A Rapid Review of Associations and Implications for Perinatal Care.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2024Pooled it
- The microbiome and PTSD: a scoping review across preclinical and clinical studies.European journal of psychotraumatology · 2026Article
- Maternal stress is associated with oral microbiota diversity patterns in pregnant women in Quito, Ecuador.Comprehensive psychoneuroendocrinology · 2026Article
- Pilot Study of Oral Microbiome and Psychoneurological Symptom Cluster in Breast Cancer.Nursing research · 2026Article
- Oral health changes during pregnancy and their association with stress and salivary cortisol.BMC oral health · 2026Observational
- Microbiome and metabolome integrated analysis reveals oral microbiota alterations and associated metabolic pathways in allergic rhinitis.Journal of oral microbiology · 2026Article
- The oral microbiome in relation to systemic maternal conditions and pregnancy complications: a systematic review and meta-analysis.Journal of oral microbiology · 2026Review
- The role of oral dysbiosis in pregnancy complications: a systematic review and meta-analysis of preterm birth.Journal of oral microbiology · 2026Review
- Beyond the Gut: Integrating Oral Microbiota into the Microbiota-Brain Axis in Depression.Molecular neurobiology · 2025Review
- Oral-Gut Microbiota Crosstalk and Epigenetic Targets in Metabolic and Neuropsychiatric Diseases.Nutrients · 2025Review
- Impact of maternal microbiota imbalance during pregnancy on fetal cerebral neurodevelopment: Is there a link to certain autistic disorders?Brain, behavior, & immunity - health · 2025Review
- SANA-Biome: A Protocol for a Cross-Sectional Study on Oral Health, Diet, and the Oral Microbiome in Romania.Healthcare (Basel, Switzerland) · 2025Article
- Association Between Oral Dysbiosis and Depression: A Systematic Review.Journal of clinical medicine · 2025Review
- Effects of psychosocial stress on laryngeal microbiology and epithelial barrier integrity.Scientific reports · 2025Article
- Oral microbiome composition is associated with depressive symptoms during pregnancy.Brain, behavior, & immunity - health · 2025Article
- Human oral microbiome and its influence on mental health and brain disorders.AIMS microbiology · 2025Review
- A method for predicting postpartum depression via an ensemble neural network model.Frontiers in public health · 2025Article
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.
Funding
Abstract
backgroundResearch has revealed associations between microbes of the gastrointestinal tract and stress, anxiety and depression in pregnant or postpartum women. While these studies suggest a gut-brain-behaviour axis, no studies have examined microbes of the oral cavity in relation to maternal mental health.
objectiveTo explore a potential oral-brain-behaviour axis related to maternal mental health.
methodsMicrobes were measured in saliva obtained from 224 second-trimester (mean±SD = 17±2 weeks) women oversampled for stress. Oralome data were associated with women's recent or cumulative pregnancy stress, trait and state anxiety, depression symptoms and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms. Covariates explored included age, income, alcohol and tobacco use, dental issues and physical health problems.
resultsPregnant women in the high trait anxiety or depression symptom groups had higher oral alpha diversity, indicating higher richness of species within samples. Groups with high and low PTSD symptoms differed in beta diversity, reflecting differences in community composition. Linear discriminant analysis showed differently abundant microbes in women with high stress versus low life stress, anxiety, depression, and PTSD, with the affected microbes mostly differing by symptom. Notably, members of phylum
conclusionsThe oral microbiome is associated with stress and mental health in pregnant women, in ways different from the gut microbiome or what has been found in non-pregnant people. CLINICAL IMPLICATIONS: Understanding oral microbiome-mental health relations may reveal future microbial targets to improve maternal psychological well-being.
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.