How mood disorders affect the stomach?
A medical study has examined how stress related to social conflicts affects the structure of intestinal bacteria and has revealed that mood disorders often cause gastrointestinal discomfort as a physical symptom.
The researchers said many aspects of the brain-bowel relationship are still unclear, including if the stress is a result of social conflict, whether the final position (winner or loser) affects the bacterial structure present in the intestine.
Scientists at Georgia State University in Atlanta began investigating this problem by examining the physiological changes that occur in a number of golden hamsters, who have been forced to deal with stressful situations, as they adapt well to the search for biological responses to social stress ; Because when they are put together, they compete to create a hierarchy that is divided into "winning, losing" animals.
During his work with the adult male hamster, Dr. Kim Hohmann and colleagues discussed how to change the stressful social attitudes of intestinal microbes and predicted that hamsters' "losers" may be more affected than conflict with other animals.
The study, published in the journal Social Behavior Research, analyzed gastrointestinal bacteria among hamsters at the beginning of the study, before allowing the animals to meet in the end, after competing to create a hierarchy in the newly assembled group.
The researchers found that even the simple exposure to social stress caused a change in the composition of bacteria and stomach bacteria in mice, similar to what is seen after exposure to other factors and physical pressure more severe.