the calls started pouring in soon after word spread that dr. valerie taylor was testing fecal microbiota transplantation — transferring poop from one body to another — for bipolar disorder.
the mental health condition is different from depression. it comes with mania, the “up” swings that can make people feel superhuman. “but so many people with depression called wanting to take part in the study we felt we had an obligation to try,” said taylor, chief of psychiatry at the university of calgary.
two years after spearheading the bipolar study, the first of its kind in the world, taylor has now launched a second study testing fecal transplants in people with depression, as well as a third for depression in people who also have irritable bowel syndrome.
“the literature that we’re on to something has grown,” said taylor. “but we’re not goop,” she added, referring to gwyneth paltrow’s often airy lifestyle brand. “we want to know if there’s something here or not.”
no area of psychiatry is as hot, or controversial today as the idea of manipulating the gut to alter the mind. the trillions of bacteria living in the human gut have been shown to play a crucial role in gut-brain communication, researchers write in the canadian journal of psychiatry. the hope is that enhancing good gut microbes — whether with probiotics, fecal transplants or capsules filled with donor stool, or by adding sauerkraut or other fermented foods to the diet — may be the answer to intractable depression, the kind conventional treatments can’t touch.