Between the Belly and the Brain: Distorted Gut-brain Crosstalk in Early-life Adversity

Launched by UNIVERSITAIR ZIEKENHUIS BRUSSEL · Apr 3, 2025

Keywords

ClinConnect Summary

This clinical trial, titled "Between the Belly and the Brain," is exploring how early-life challenges, like trauma or stress, can affect children's gut health and emotional well-being. Researchers want to find out if children who have faced these difficulties have different types of bacteria in their guts, which may be linked to problems such as anxiety, depression, or social difficulties.

To participate in this study, children aged 6 to 13 who have experienced at least one traumatic event are eligible. It's important that both the child and at least one parent or guardian can speak Dutch well enough to complete various questionnaires and interviews. Participants will not be able to take certain medications or supplements that could affect their gut health for a few weeks before joining the study. While this trial is not yet recruiting, it aims to gather valuable insights into how gut health and emotional issues are connected in children who have faced early adversity.

Gender

ALL

Eligibility criteria

• Inclusion Criteria:
• • Primary school-aged children (6 to 13 years of age) who have experienced at least one early-life traumatic event, based on the Childhood Trust Events Survey (CTES) questionnaire
• • The child and at least one of his/her parents (or guardian) speak Dutch sufficiently well to complete all of the questionnaires and the semi-structured child psychiatric interview (SCID-5-Junior)
• Exclusion Criteria:
• • any chronic disorders or diseases known to affect the gut micobiome
• • inablity to complete questionnaires and/or semi-structured interview because of linguistic and/or cognitive barrier
• • congenital or acquired immunodeficiencies
• • use of medication(s) that affect gastrointestinal function (e.g., antibiotics) within the last 6 weeks, or laxatives within the last 4 weeks, or probiotic or prebiotic supplements within the last 4 weeks
• • current involvement in another clinical or food study