Alterations to gut bacteria as a result of stress in early life may play a key role in the development of anxiety and depression in adulthood, according to the results of a new study published in Nature Communications.

Share on Pinterest Researchers say stress in early life may trigger gut bacteria alterations that lead to the development of anxiety and depression in adulthood.

Increasingly, researchers are investigating how gut bacteria impact health. In November 2014, for example, Medical News Today reported on a study revealing how gut bacteria influence weight, while another study associated gut bacteria with Parkinson’s disease.

According to senior study author Premysl Bercik, associate professor of medicine at the Michael G. DeGrotte School of Medicine at McMaster University in Canada, and colleagues, it has long been known that gut bacteria can also influence behavior.

However, the majority of studies investigating this association have used healthy, normal mice, says Bercik. For their study, the team used two groups of mice; one group had normal gut bacteria while the other group had no gut bacteria.

Some of the mice in each group were subjected to early-life stress, triggered by separation from their mothers for 3 hours daily from the age of 3-21 days.