Mouth and upper-throat microbes differ across groups in mental-health research
People with conditions examined in this review had different mouth and upper-throat microbial communities from healthy comparison participants. Specific microbial changes were inconsistent, and their diagnostic usefulness remains preliminary.
Based on the published abstract. The full paper may contain additional methods, results and limitations.
The 30-second takeaway
The review reported differences in microbial communities from the mouth and throat behind the nose between affected participants and healthy controls. Some studies used those profiles to build diagnostic models. However, inconsistent microbial findings and missing accuracy estimates in the abstract leave uncertainty about whether these profiles can reliably identify particular conditions in practice.
The abstract supplies no diagnostic accuracy estimates or validation details. The authors call for better control of other influences, attention to differences between studies, and prospective and experimental research to clarify the relationships.
What a microbial profile describes
A microbial profile describes the composition of a community of microbes. Here, researchers examined communities in the mouth and upper throat. Group differences describe an association with the reviewed conditions, without establishing that microbes caused those conditions.
Group differences and diagnostic models
A diagnostic model uses measured features to distinguish groups. Detecting average microbial differences does not by itself show that a model can accurately identify an individual's condition. The abstract describes this line of research as preliminary.
The original publication
The oro- and nasopharyngeal microbiota as a revolutionary perspective on mental disorders and related psychopathology: a systematic review and meta-analysis.
Hesami Z, Atashrooz M, Sardarzehi R et al.
J Transl Med · 2025
- PubMed ID
- 40604974
- Record checked
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