Cork researchers make 'significant breakthrough' for the treatment of Social Anxiety Disorder 

NEW research from APC Microbiome Ireland (APC) at University College Cork (UCC) has discovered that the microbes in the gut may be playing a key role in Social Anxiety Disorder (SAD) - a finding that has been described as a “significant breakthrough”.

The findings in the study ‘Social Anxiety Disorder-Associated Gut Microbiota Increases Social Fear’ suggest that gut microbiota can play a role in the heightened social fear response tied to SAD and represent a potential therapeutic target, according to the authors.

The analysis casually builds on recent findings that SAD patients have distinct microbiomes compared with healthy individuals by showing that transplanting microbiota from six patients with SAD into mice resulted in the mice exhibiting increased sensitivity to fear conditioning during social interactions, as well as changes to immune and brain functions.

The research, led by APC principal investigator and vice president for research and innovation at UCC, Professor John F Cryan, states: “SAD is an increasing issue for the human population, so it is vital to explore new treatments to address the condition.

“Discovering a link between the microbiota and the SAD condition is a significant breakthrough that the microbiota represent a potentially therapeutic target.”

Researcher Dr Nathaniel Ritz, who worked on the study while at APC, suggests the microbiome could be leveraged to devise therapeutic interventions to combat SAD.

“Our study shows that the microbiota in SAD is capable of driving symptoms characteristic of the disorder,” he said. 

“This makes for exciting possibilities in the effort to develop therapeutics for patients suffering with SAD.”

Director of APC Prof Paul Ross said they are “continuing to discover how the microorganisms in our gut can affect a wide variety of human illnesses and conditions including those involved in mental health and wellbeing”.

“Social Anxiety Disorder can be a crippling condition, and this new discovery opens up new therapeutic avenues which take the microbiome into account with the possibility to change its composition to improve health,” said Mr Ross.