Irritable bowel syndrome (IBS).Fecal microbiota transplantation has been shown to improve IBS by increasing the diversity of gut microbiota.16 It also improves patients’ mood, not just their IBS symptoms.
Alcohol use.Both alcohol consumption and alcohol withdrawal have been shown to cause immune dysregulation in the brain leading to neuroinflammation. This is attributed to the alteration in the composition of the microbiome (dysbiosis), which has a negative effect on the microbe-host homeostasis.17
The discovery of microbiome-gut-brain interactions and their bidirectional immune, endocrine, and neurotransmitter effects has been a momentous paradigm shift in health, neuroscience, and psychiatry.18 It has opened wide vistas of research for potential innovations in the prevention and treatment of various psychiatric disorders. Radical medical interventions that were previously inconceivable, such as fecal transplantation,19 are an example of the bold insights this new field of microbiome-gut-brain interaction is bringing to the landscape of medicine, including psychiatry. It has also highlighted the previously underappreciated importance of nutrition in health and disease.20
