title: The Gut-Brain Axis in Healthy Females: Lack of Significant Association between Microbial Composition and Diversity with Psychiatric Measures.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  This study examined associations between the composition and diversity of the intestinal microbiota and measures of depression, anxiety, eating disorder psychopathology, stress, and personality in a group of healthy adult females.
  
  
  METHODS
  Female participants (n = 91) ages 19-50 years with BMI 18.5-25 kg/m2 were recruited from central North Carolina between July 2014 and March 2015. Participants provided a single fecal sample and completed an online psychiatric questionnaire that included five measures: (i) Beck Anxiety Inventory; (ii) Beck Depression Inventory-II; (iii) Eating Disorder Examination-Questionnaire; (iv) Perceived Stress Scale; and (v) Mini International Personality Item Pool. Bacterial composition and diversity were characterized by Illumina sequencing of the 16S rRNA gene, and associations were examined using Kendall's tau-b correlation coefficient, in conjunction with Benjamini and Hochberg's False Discovery Rate procedure.
  
  
  RESULTS
  We found no significant associations between microbial markers of gut composition and diversity and scores on psychiatric measures of anxiety, depression, eating-related thoughts and behaviors, stress, or personality in a large cohort of healthy adult females.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  This study was the first specifically to examine associations between the intestinal microbiota and psychiatric measures in healthy females, and based on 16S rRNA taxonomic abundances and diversity measures, our results do not suggest a strong role for the enteric microbe-gut-brain axis in normal variation on responses to psychiatric measures in this population. However, the role of the intestinal microbiota in the pathophysiology of psychiatric illness may be limited to more severe psychopathology.
authors.affiliation: Department of Nutrition, The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, North Carolina, United States of America.
authors.forename: Susan C
authors.initials: SC
authors.lastname: Kleiman
authors.affiliation: Department of Medicine, The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, North Carolina, United States of America.
authors.forename: Emily C
authors.initials: EC
authors.lastname: Bulik-Sullivan
authors.affiliation: Department of Nutrition, The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, North Carolina, United States of America.
authors.forename: Elaine M
authors.initials: EM
authors.lastname: Glenny
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry, The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, North Carolina, United States of America.
authors.forename: Stephanie C
authors.initials: SC
authors.lastname: Zerwas
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry, The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, North Carolina, United States of America.
authors.forename: Eun Young
authors.initials: EY
authors.lastname: Huh
authors.affiliation: Department of Bioinformatics and Genomics, The University of North Carolina at Charlotte, Charlotte, North Carolina, United States of America.
authors.forename: Matthew C B
authors.initials: MC
authors.lastname: Tsilimigras
authors.affiliation: Department of Bioinformatics and Genomics, The University of North Carolina at Charlotte, Charlotte, North Carolina, United States of America.
authors.forename: Anthony A
authors.initials: AA
authors.lastname: Fodor
authors.affiliation: Department of Nutrition, The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, North Carolina, United States of America.|Department of Psychiatry, The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, North Carolina, United States of America.|Department of Medical Epidemiology and Biostatistics, Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm, Sweden.
authors.forename: Cynthia M
authors.identifier: http://orcid.org/0000-0001-7772-3264
authors.initials: CM
authors.lastname: Bulik
authors.affiliation: Department of Medicine, The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, North Carolina, United States of America.|Center for Gastrointestinal Biology and Disease, The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, North Carolina, United States of America.
authors.forename: Ian M
authors.initials: IM
authors.lastname: Carroll
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D001007:Anxiety / Q000382:microbiology; D044822:Biodiversity; D015331:Cohort Studies; D003863:Depression / Q000382:microbiology; D001068:Feeding and Eating Disorders / Q000382:microbiology; D005260:Female; D000069196:Gastrointestinal Microbiome / Q000235:genetics / Q000502:physiology*; D006801:Humans; D001523:Mental Disorders / Q000382:microbiology*; D008875:Middle Aged; D009657:North Carolina; D010551:Personality; D011569:Psychiatric Status Rating Scales; D012336:RNA, Ribosomal, 16S / Q000235:genetics; D013315:Stress, Psychological / Q000382:microbiology; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D055815:Young Adult
chemical_list: D012336:RNA, Ribosomal, 16S