TY - JOUR
T1 - History of childhood physical abuse is associated with gut microbiota diversity among adult psychiatric inpatients
AU - Rohr, Jessica C.
AU - Bourassa, Katelynn A.
AU - Thompson, Dominique S.
AU - Fowler, J. Christopher
AU - Frueh, B. Christopher
AU - Weinstein, Benjamin L.
AU - Petrosino, Joseph
AU - Madan, Alok
N1 - Funding Information:
This work was supported by the Houston Methodist Foundation (JR, KB, AM, JCF, DT), The Menninger Clinic Foundation (AM, JCF, CF), and Baylor College of Medicine's Alkek Center for Metagenomics and Microbiome Research (DT, JP). None of these funding sources had a role in the study design, collection, analysis, or interpretation of the data, writing the article, or in the decision to submit the article for publication.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2023 Elsevier B.V.
PY - 2023/6/15
Y1 - 2023/6/15
N2 - Background: Traumatic life events are associated with the development of psychiatric and chronic medical illnesses. This exploratory study examined the relationship between traumatic life events and the gut microbiota among adult psychiatric inpatients. Methods: 105 adult psychiatric inpatients provided clinical data and a single fecal sample shortly after admission. A modified version of the Stressful Life Events Screening Questionnaire was used to quantify history of traumatic life events. 16S rRNA gene sequencing was used to analyze the gut microbial community. Results: Gut microbiota diversity was not associated with overall trauma score or any of the three trauma factor scores. Upon item-level analysis, history of childhood physical abuse was uniquely associated with beta diversity. Linear Discriminant Analysis Effect Size (LefSe) analyses revealed that childhood physical abuse was associated with abundance of distinct bacterial taxa associated with inflammation. Limitations: This study did not account for dietary differences, though diet was highly restricted as all participants were psychiatric inpatients. Absolute variance accounted for by the taxa was small though practically meaningful. The study was not powered for full subgroup analysis based on race and ethnicity. Conclusions: This study is among the first to demonstrate a relationship between childhood physical abuse and gut microbiota composition among adult psychiatric patients. These findings suggest that early childhood adverse events may have long-conferred systemic consequences. Future efforts may target the gut microbiota for the prevention and/or treatment of psychiatric and medical risk associated with traumatic life events.
AB - Background: Traumatic life events are associated with the development of psychiatric and chronic medical illnesses. This exploratory study examined the relationship between traumatic life events and the gut microbiota among adult psychiatric inpatients. Methods: 105 adult psychiatric inpatients provided clinical data and a single fecal sample shortly after admission. A modified version of the Stressful Life Events Screening Questionnaire was used to quantify history of traumatic life events. 16S rRNA gene sequencing was used to analyze the gut microbial community. Results: Gut microbiota diversity was not associated with overall trauma score or any of the three trauma factor scores. Upon item-level analysis, history of childhood physical abuse was uniquely associated with beta diversity. Linear Discriminant Analysis Effect Size (LefSe) analyses revealed that childhood physical abuse was associated with abundance of distinct bacterial taxa associated with inflammation. Limitations: This study did not account for dietary differences, though diet was highly restricted as all participants were psychiatric inpatients. Absolute variance accounted for by the taxa was small though practically meaningful. The study was not powered for full subgroup analysis based on race and ethnicity. Conclusions: This study is among the first to demonstrate a relationship between childhood physical abuse and gut microbiota composition among adult psychiatric patients. These findings suggest that early childhood adverse events may have long-conferred systemic consequences. Future efforts may target the gut microbiota for the prevention and/or treatment of psychiatric and medical risk associated with traumatic life events.
KW - Brain-gut axis
KW - Childhood physical abuse
KW - Gut microbiota
KW - Trauma
KW - Inpatients
KW - Microbiota
KW - Humans
KW - Child, Preschool
KW - RNA, Ribosomal, 16S/genetics
KW - Adult
KW - Gastrointestinal Microbiome/genetics
KW - Physical Abuse
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U2 - 10.1016/j.jad.2023.03.023
DO - 10.1016/j.jad.2023.03.023
M3 - Article
C2 - 36933668
AN - SCOPUS:85150809727
SN - 0165-0327
VL - 331
SP - 50
EP - 56
JO - Journal of Affective Disorders
JF - Journal of Affective Disorders
ER -