Gut Microbiome in Patients with Schizophrenia and Bipolar Disorder

Schizophrenia and bipolar disorder are severe mental disorders, both placing a significant burden on individuals’ wellbeing and global health generally. The complex interaction of multiple mechanisms, underlying these disorders, still needs further elucidation. Increased activation of components of the immune system may be involved, including alterations in intestinal permeability and the gut microbiome. Probiotics, defined as living microorganisms conferring health benefits to the host when administered in adequate amounts, may have some supportive therapeutic effect in psychiatric disorders. The authors in this chapter provide an overview of this emerging research field and summarize both the published microbiome studies in schizophrenia and bipolar disorder and the current clinical research using probiotic supplementation in patients diagnosed with these disorders. The current data indicate that there are differences in the microbiome in schizophrenia and bipolar disorder patients as compared with healthy controls. Part of these differences may be induced by medication use, others by smoking and other lifestyle factors. Correlations between microbiome quantification and symptom severity have been observed in cross-sectional studies, but unfortunately, there are nor replicated findings so far. Probiotic supplementation was shown not only to alleviate gastrointestinal complaints but also reduce symptom severity, rehospitalization rates, and cognitive improvement in some studies. Replication of improvement of cognition is needed. In conclusion, differences in microbiome have been shown in both SCZ and bipolar disorder in comparison to healthy controls. Evidence that probiotics can improve psychiatric functioning is still very limited.