2023 · Wang — Effects of molecular hydrogen intervention on the gut microbiome in methamphetamine abusers with mental disorder.
Super-Abstract
In female methamphetamine users suffering from depression and anxiety, both drinking and inhaling molecular hydrogen significantly alleviated mental health symptoms — and hydrogen inhalation also shifted gut microbiome composition. The finding connects gut bacteria, H₂ metabolism, and neuropsychiatric health in a vulnerable population. (Brain Research Bulletin, 2023.)
Commentary
Methamphetamine (METH) abuse causes severe psychiatric consequences including depression and anxiety, and growing evidence links these mental disorders to gut microbiome disruption. This study compared METH users to age-matched healthy controls and found that METH users had higher depression and anxiety scores (SDS and SAS scales), lower gut bacterial diversity (alpha diversity), and a notably different microbiome composition — including reduced levels of hydrogen-producing bacteria such as Bacteroides and Roseburia. This is mechanistically interesting: Bacteroides and Roseburia are among the primary H₂-producing fermenters in the gut. Reduced endogenous H₂ production may be part of the vicious cycle linking METH use, microbiome disruption, and worsening mental health. The intervention tested hydrogen in two forms: drinking hydrogen-rich water and inhalation. Both routes significantly improved SDS and SAS scores. Inhalation additionally altered the gut microbiome profile. The study is small, the cohort specific (female METH users), and causal attribution is complex, but the dual finding — psychiatric benefit + microbiome shift — is coherent with the H₂ neuropsychiatry hypothesis.
Key quotes
- „hydrogen intervention, including drinking and inhaling, significantly alleviated mental disorders induced by METH abuse.“ — the key clinical finding: both H₂ delivery routes improved mental health scores
- „the inhalation of hydrogen also altered gut microbiota profiles in the METH abusers.“ — inhalation had an additional effect on the microbiome beyond psychiatric symptom relief
- „reductions in hydrogen-producing bacteria, including Bacteroides and Roseburia“ — the baseline microbiome deficit: METH users produce less endogenous gut H₂
Our assessment
This is an interesting but preliminary study with significant limitations. Limitations: cohort is exclusively female METH users — a highly specific and non-generalizable population; no placebo or sham control for the H₂ intervention; the mechanism by which H₂ improves psychiatric scores is not established; no neuroimaging or biomarker endpoints; sample size appears small (not specified in abstract); the study cannot disentangle general behavioural effects of the intervention from H₂-specific effects. Nevertheless, the study is among the first to examine H₂ in a substance-abuse and mental-health context, and the microbiome-hydrogen-neuropsychiatry connection is a legitimate emerging hypothesis. Replication with controls in a larger sample is needed.
Study design
- Type: intervention study with pre/post comparison · Population: female methamphetamine users with mental disorders vs. healthy controls · H₂ delivery: drinking hydrogen-rich water + hydrogen inhalation
- Result: H₂ (both routes): significant reduction in SDS and SAS scores · Inhalation: altered gut microbiome profiles · Baseline: METH users had reduced Bacteroides, Roseburia (H₂-producing bacteria) and lower alpha diversity
Abstract
Methamphetamine (METH) is a potent and highly addictive psychostimulant and one of the most widely used illicit drugs, the abuse of which has become a severe public health problem worldwide. A growing amount of evidence has indicated potential connections between gut microbiota and mental disorders induced by METH and associations with neural and metabolic pathways. The present study aimed to explore the relationship between fecal microbial alterations and neuropsychiatric diseases in METH addictions. Thus, mental disorders and gut microbial alterations were analyzed by self-rating depression (SDS) and anxiety (SAS) scales and 16 S rRNA gene sequencing, respectively. Our results showed that increased SDS and SAS indices and decreased alpha diversity indicated more serious mental disorders and lower bacterial diversity in METH users than in the age-matched healthy control group. The gut microbial composition in female METH users was also significantly altered, with reductions in hydrogen-producing bacteria, including Bacteroides and Roseburia. Molecular hydrogen (H2) is spontaneously produced by intestinal bacteria in the process of anaerobic metabolism, which is the main pathway for H2 production in vivo. Numerous studies have shown that hydrogen intervention can significantly improve neuropsychiatric diseases, including Alzheimer's disease and Parkinson's disease. Our results showed that hydrogen intervention, including drinking and inhaling, significantly alleviated mental disorders induced by METH abuse, and the inhalation of hydrogen also altered gut microbiota profiles in the METH abusers. These results suggest that hydrogen intervention has potential therapeutic applicability in the treatment of mental disorders in METH abusers.
Source & links
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