Discussion
MDD, depression, Anxiety, depressive symptoms
ADVERSE REACTIONS
To our knowledge, this is the first trial in a Western population to demonstrate the safety, acceptability, and therapeutic potential of a readily available and scalable probiotic intervention in patients with MDD. Compared with the placebo group, the probiotic group exhibited greater improvement in depressive symptoms with moderate effect sizes, which are comparable with those reported in earlier meta-analyses.Anxiety symptoms have been little examined in probiotic trials in depression, despite their high prevalence in MDD (approximately 40% to 50%).The probiotic was well tolerated, with a low attrition rate, high adherence rate, and no serious adverse reactions. This safety and acceptability profile is better than those reported in earlier studies using different supplements.