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Could giving probiotics and vitamin D to patients suffering from schizophrenia help them? In any case, this is the conclusion of a new study carried out by Iranian researchers. Explanations.
Schizophrenia is a serious mental disorder, which is characterized by variable symptoms, the best known of which is split personality. In France, it is quite widespread since schizophrenia affects 600,000 patients. Could probiotics and vitamin D help patients? This is what a study seems to show.
Daily supplementation for three months
In this study, Iranian researchers from the University of Social Welfare and Rehabilitation Sciences recruited a group of 70 volunteers, aged 18 to 65, affected by schizophrenia.
After randomly dividing them into two separate groups, they gave the first group a placebo, while the second was supplemented with probiotics and vitamin D at 400 IU per day for three months. At the same time, the disease, in particular its severity and the evolution of cognitive functions, were evaluated using tests called “positive and negative syndrome scale (PANSS)” and “30 points”.
A return to normal cognition for certain patients
Result: for the first scale, the differences between the two groups were not significant. On the other hand, on the Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MoCA), the result increased by 1.96 units in the group that took probiotics and vitamin D compared to the placebo group.
According to Gita Sadighi, lead author of the work, “probiotics could be a new way to treat mental disorders by regulating the intestinal microbiota”.
These results need to be confirmed on a larger number of patients but already represent hope for these patients who suffer from this stigmatizing pathology, which can be a real handicap in daily life.