By Caley Gibson
Published August 13, 2024
Could taking poop pills help improve the health of those suffering from certain mental health disorders?
The University of Calgary’s Cumming School of Medicine is currently recruiting for two studies to find out whether fecal microbiota transplantation (FMT) can reduce symptoms of major depression disorder (MDD) and obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD).
FMT is a medical procedure where a pill prepared from the stool (poop) of a healthy person is transferred into a patient’s gut. The procedure has been successful in treating C. difficile, a bacterium that causes an infection of the colon.
“Poop pills” are one way the gut microbiome can be manipulated by bringing in beneficial bacteria and reducing the number of “harmful” bacteria. According to researchers at the U of C, there is compelling evidence of an interaction between one’s gut and the central nervous system.
“Underlying our whole research is the concept that we believe that your gut bacteria via the gut-brain axis – the connection between your GI system and your brain – impact mental illness and that this is a very viable target for treatment, that mental illness is not just a brain disease, that it actually has strong links to your GI system,” explained Dr. Valerie Taylor, head of the psychiatry department at the U of C.
Taylor said there is a strong body of research identifying the fact that gut microbiome is different in people who have mental illness and those who don’t.
