Association Between Gastrointestinal Symptoms and Depression in a Representative Sample of Adults in the United States: Findings From National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (2005-2016).

Background: The microbiome's role in the etiology of depression has been a topic of many recent investigations. Findings suggest that dysbiosis, which describes a general disturbance in the gut microbiome, underlies negative gastrointestinal symptoms and is implicated in depression. We studied associations between gastrointestinal symptoms and depressive symptoms at a population level using cross-sectional data from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (2005-2016, n = 36,287).