Mental health disorders, including depression and anxiety, affect over 300 million people globally and according to the World Health Organisation, these numbers are likely to increase.
Therefore interventional studies, such as BioMood, are of high importance particularly during pregnancy when the health of the developing fetus can cause additional maternal distress.
Pleminary research suggests that healthy gut microbiota has shown promise in reducing symptoms and occurrence of mental disorders. Specifically, the Meditteranean diet has shown to provide benefits to the microbiome, metabolome composition and reduce perpipheral inflammation.
Therefore, the BioMood study will examine the effect of maternal adherence to a Meditteranean diet on the microbiome and metabolome composition as well as inflammatory markers, hypothesizing that 'beneficial' gut microbiota is associated with positive mental health parameters.
The term 'Meditteranean diet' is characterised byt high consumption of fruit and vegetables, legumes, nuts and seeds, whole-grains, olive oil, dairy, poultry, and a moderate amount of fish and small amounts of red meat. This style of diet is generally considered healthy due to its reported negative association with occurrence of non-communicable disorders including cardiovascular diseases, cancer, neurodegenerative diseases, diabetes and early death.
A recent metanalysis of dietary influences on mental health has highlighted the Meditteranean diet as the most promising dietary modular of depressive thoughts and behaviours. Research suggests the infllamatory index of diets, like the Meditteranean diet, is of importance in the reduciton of mental health symptoms, considering inflammation commonly being present in depressive individuals.
It's also generally accepated that the high fibre content of the Mediterranean diet has beneficial influences on the gut microbiome, which is increasingly implicated as a mjor determining factor in human physical and mental health.
Since the gut microbiome can regulate inflammation, it's plausible that the Meditteranean diet exertspositive mental health effects through a modulatory effect of the gut microbiome, and in alignment with the gut-brain axis, reduce peripheral inflammation and depressive symptoms.
The study is composed of 52 participants, 26 women with a low Meditteranean diet index (MDI) and 26 with a high MDI. The participants will have hair samples at a single timepoint, as well as longitudinal stool, saliva and plasma samples at 20, 28 and 36 weeks of pregnancy.
At each timepoint, the samples will be analysed and associated with maternal mental health measures including stress, anxiety and depression.
Investigators
- Dr Nina D'Vaz, ORIGINS Biobank Manager at The Kids Research Institute Australia
- Dr Desiree Silva, ORIGINS Co-Director at The Kids Research Institute Australia
- Professor Susan Prescott at The Kids Research Institute Australia
- Dr Claus Chrisophersen at Curtin University
- Professor Jeremy Nicholson, Director of the Phenome Centre at Murdoch University
- Dr David Martino, Head of Clinical Epigentics at The Kids Research Institute Australia
- Dr Jenny Downs at The Kids Research Institute Australia
- Dr Amy Finaly-Jones at The Kids Research Institute Australia
- Kimberley Parkin, PhD Student at the University of Western Australia