EMERGING evidence links gut microbiota dysbiosis with overlapping neuropsychiatric disorders and chronic inflammatory skin disease.
Neuropsychiatric disorders such as autism spectrum disorder, generalized anxiety disorder, major depressive disorder and schizophrenia often coexist with atopic dermatitis, psoriasis, rosacea and chronic urticaria. This review brings together preclinical and clinical data that support a shared gut brain skin axis in these conditions, with gut microbiota dysbiosis as a central feature.
Shared Microbial Patterns Across Brain and Skin
The authors describe consistent microbial changes across neuropsychiatric and dermatologic disorders, including reduced alpha diversity and altered Firmicutes to Bacteroidetes ratios. Short chain fatty acid producing taxa such as Faecalibacterium, Roseburia and Eubacterium species appear depleted. These patterns recur across diagnostic categories and mirror clinical observations of chronic inflammation and symptom overlap between brain and skin.
Gut Microbiota Dysbiosis and Immune Pathways
Gut microbiota dysbiosis in these populations is associated with elevated inflammatory mediators, including IL-6, tumor necrosis factor alpha, IL-1 beta and IL-17. The review also highlights disrupted amino acid metabolism, altered glutamate and gamma aminobutyric acid signaling and increased branched chain amino acids, suggesting convergence on immune and metabolic pathways that can affect both neural circuits and cutaneous tissues.
Experimental rodent studies reinforce this concept, showing that induced microbiota dysbiosis can modulate psychiatric like behaviors as well as cutaneous inflammation. These findings add mechanistic weight to clinical associations and underline the potential of the gut brain skin axis as a therapeutic target.
Clinical Implications and Microbiota Targeted Strategies
For practicing clinicians, the review suggests that gut microbiota dysbiosis may help explain why neuropsychiatric symptoms and dermatological comorbidities frequently cluster in the same patients. Microbiota targeted therapies, including probiotics, show early signals of benefit for both mental health symptoms and skin inflammation, although current data remain preliminary. The authors propose that future treatment strategies may combine conventional psychiatric and dermatologic interventions with approaches that restore a healthier gut microbiota profile, with the goal of improving outcomes across both domains.
Reference: Hawkins B et al. Gut microbiota dysbiosis at the interface of neuropsychiatric disorders and their dermatological comorbidities. Gut Microbes. 2025;17(1):2574934.
