Therapeutic benefit of probiotic in alcohol dependence syndrome: Evidence from a tertiary care centre of India

Abstract

Probiotic adjuvant has promising effects in treating alcohol induced hepatitis, depression, and anxiety. This study aimed to assess the effectiveness of adjuvant probiotic use in improving the liver functions, anxiety, and depression among patients with alcohol dependence syndrome (ADS) in a tertiary care hospital in Andhra Pradesh, India. In this prospective observational design, ADS patients with or without probiotics were followed-up at one and three months after initiation of treatment. They were assessed for liver function test (LFT), anxiety by HAM-A and depression by HAM-D scale. A total of 120 patients complied with the treatment, 60 in each group, mean age being 35.0 years (SD 9.5 years). The baseline socio-demographic and clinical characteristics were similar in both the groups. Significant reduction was noted in the probiotic group for total bilirubin (Mean difference (MD) 0.18; 95% CI: 0.04, 0.31), AST (MD 5.0; 95% CI: 0.5, 9.5), and ALT (MD 8.6; 95% CI: 1.4, 15.7) at one month after treatment. Both the groups showed a considerable change in anxiety and depression scores (HAM-A and HAM-D) till three months. At three months of treatment initiation, proportional improvement of severity grade to mild form in anxiety was more in the probiotic group (35%) than the non-probiotic group (13.3%) (p<0.05). Hence, probiotic supplementation can significantly reduce the hepatic enzymes and depression severity in patients with alcohol dependence syndrome but demands additional robust evidence on the causal inference.