History of Childhood Physical Abuse Is Associated With Gut Microbiota Diversity Among Adult Psychiatric Inpatients

Authors

Jessica C Rohr
Katelynn A Bourassa
Dominique S Thompson
J Christopher Fowler
B Christopher Frueh
Benjamin L Weinstein
Joseph Petrosino
Alok Madan

Publication Date

6-15-2023

Journal

Journal of Affective Disorders

DOI

10.1016/j.jad.2023.03.023

PMID

36933668

PMCID

PMC10278557

PubMedCentral® Posted Date

6-19-2023

PubMedCentral® Full Text Version

Author MSS

Published Open-Access

yes

Keywords

Humans, Adult, Child, Preschool, Gastrointestinal Microbiome, Inpatients, RNA, Ribosomal, 16S, Physical Abuse, Microbiota, Trauma, Gut microbiota, Childhood physical abuse, Brain-gut axis

Abstract

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.