The effect of oral probiotic supplementation on mental health, quality of life, fatigue and pain in Multiple Sclerosis (MS)

Abstract

According to the recent attention of scientists in the field of nutrition to the use of Saccharomyces yeast as a probiotic and its use in the treatment of systemic diseases and the lack of a previous research study to investigate the effect of this yeast in multiple sclerosis patients, we decided to investigate the effect of probiotic supplementation on mental health, quality of life, fatigue and pain in patients with multiple sclerosis. Methods: The present study was a double-blind randomized clinical trial on 50 patients with multiple sclerosis. The subjects were assigned to two probiotic groups (n=25) and placebo (n=25) and were treated with one BioDigest capsule containing 250 mg of Saccharomyces boulardi (1010 CFU) per day or one placebo capsule in day for 4 months. Before and after the intervention, the pain intensity was measured using the visual analogue scale (VAS), the level of mental health using the Persian version of the General Health Questionnaire (GHQ)-28, fatigue using the Fatigue Severity Scale (FSS) and the quality of life using the SF-36 questionnaire. Results: Finally, 40 patients completed the study and their data were used in the final analysis. The average age of the patients was 33.80 ± 6.37 and 34.95 ± 7.03 years after separating the two groups receiving probiotic supplement and placebo, respectively. The physical health dimension score of GHQ-28 in the probiotic group increased significantly after adjustment to baseline values compared to the placebo group (1.80 ± 1.90 vs. 0.10 ± 1.825 and p<0.001). Additionally, the GHQ-28 social functioning dimension score increased significantly in the probiotic group after adjustment to the baseline values compared to the placebo group (1.60 ± 2.77 vs. 0.46 ± 2.29 and p=0.41 ). The numerical value of the VAS visual pain scale in the probiotic group was significantly reduced compared to the placebo group (-1.15 ± 0.67 versus -0.35 ± 0.81 cm and p=0.004). The numerical value of the FSS fatigue index in the probiotic group significantly decreased compared to the placebo group (-5.55 ± 5.59 versus -2.35 ± 4.92 and p=0.010). The numerical value of quality of life scales including physical function (8.28 ± 8.19 vs. 2.74 ± 4.04 and p=0.001), role disruption due to physical health (3.75 ± 14.67 vs. -5.00 ± 10.65 and p=0.016), social function (8.12 ± 12.35 versus -1.25 ± 5.59 and p=0.037), pain (±9.55 9.75 versus 2.00 ± 9.71 and p=0.023) and physical health (21.72 ± 26.15 versus -1.80 ± 27.27 and p=0.003) in the probiotic group It increased significantly compared to the placebo group.