Investigating the gut microbiota composition of individuals with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder and association with symptoms

Joanna Szopinska-Tokov, Sarita Dam, Jilly Naaijen, Prokopis Konstanti, Nanda Rommelse, Clara Belzer, Jan Buitelaar, Barbara Franke, Esther Aarts, Alejandro Arias Vasquez*

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticleAcademicpeer-review

69 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

Attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is a common neurodevelopmental disorder. Given the growing evidence of gut microbiota being involved in psychiatric (including neurodevelopmental) disorders, we aimed to identify differences in gut microbiota composition between participants with ADHD and controls and to investigate the role of the microbiota in inattention and hyperactivity/impulsivity. Fecal samples were collected from 107 participants (NADHD = 42; Ncontrols = 50; NsubthreholdADHD = 15; range age: 13–29 years). The relative quantification of bacterial taxa was done using 16S ribosomal RNA gene amplicon sequencing. Beta-diversity revealed significant differences in bacterial composition between participants with ADHD and healthy controls, which was also significant for inattention, but showing a trend in case of hyperactivity/impulsivity only. Ten genera showed nominal differences (p < 0.05) between both groups, of which seven genera were tested for their association with ADHD symptom scores (adjusting for age, sex, body mass index, time delay between feces collection and symptoms assessment, medication use, and family relatedness). Our results show that variation of a genus from the Ruminococcaceae family (Ruminococcaceae_UCG_004) is associated (after multiple testing correction) with inattention symptoms and support the potential role of gut microbiota in ADHD pathophysiology.

Original languageEnglish
Article number406
JournalMicroorganisms
Volume8
Issue number3
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - Mar 2020

Keywords

  • 16S rRNA gene
  • ADHD
  • Gut microbiota
  • Inattention

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