Effect of psychobiotics on anxiety symptoms: a systematic review

Anxiety has become increasingly frequent in the entire world population and from the relationship of this pathology with the gut-brain axis, the idea of the present study emerged, with goal of analyzing the possible relationship between anxiety and intestinal microbiota. This is a systematic review, according to the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) guidelines, supported by articles published between January 2016 and June 2021, to present the advance of studies regarding psychobiotics in human beings. The search strategy used was developed by combining MeSH terms (Medical Subject Heading) and using the following descriptors: “(“probiotics and anxiety” OR probiotics OR anxiety) AND (psychobiotics OR probiotic)". A total of 406 articles were identified from Medical Literature Analysis and Retrieval System Online (Medline), Biblioteca Nacional de Medicina (PubMed), Literatura Latino-Americana e do Caribe em Ciências da Saúde (LILACS) and Scientific Electronic Library Online (SciELO) databases. Seven articles were included in the present study and 85.7% (6) of the studies evaluated, it was possible to observe a link between the use of psychobiotics and the reduction of symptoms of anxiety and stress. However, new studies are fundamental for further investigation of relationship between ingesting psychobiotics and minimization of anxiety symptoms.