Psychobiotics and Dietary Supplementation in the Clinical Practice: A Mini Review

Abstract

Mental health defined as a state of well-being in which the individual realizes his or her own abilities, can cope with the normal stresses of life, can work productively and fruitfully, and is able to make meaningful contribution to his or her community‟ reflects the individual ability to adapt to changing environment through thoughts, emotions and behaviors. Recently, the prevalence of psychiatric diseases is an emerging health issue that significantly impact on the quality of life and productivity of societies worldwide. Despite recent research advancements, the effectiveness off the curative approaches for the mental illness are still limited to pharmacologic treatments and/or psychotherapy, thereby indicating the need of development of alternative strategies. Growing number of research efforts into the better understanding of mental health determinants, prompted scientific interests into the use of dietary interventions, as potential approach to modify the mental state and improve wellbeing. A growing body of evidence to demonstrate the importance of diet, in particular intake of plant foods, in achieving optimal nutritional and health status, which has been attributed to plant-derived bioactives that consumed as whole food or dietary supplement may provide benefits for mental health, therefore providing an alternative for common pharmacotherapies in the psychiatry practice applied to treat metal conditions, including anxiety, depression, ADHD or schizophrenia. In addition, the discovery of a bidirectional communication between brain and gut microbiome, followed by the studies linking thee gut microbiota composition with behavior and mood, support use of microbial-derived metabolites in the form of live probiotic bacteria (probiotics), as well as their metabolites (post-biotics) may help in stress management and prevent anxiety-/depression-like symptoms in high-risk populations.