ArticleBMC psychiatry2025
Sex differences in fecal metabolic profiles of major depressive disorder: unveiling sex-specific metabolomic panel.
Article in BMC psychiatry, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 2 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
2 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it.
- Alterations of short-chain fatty acids in depression and effects of probiotics/prebiotics interventions on levels and clinical symptoms: a systematic review and meta-analysis.BMC psychiatry · 2026Pooled it
- Imbalance of the Brain-Gut-Microbiota Axis in Major Depressive Disorder: From Pathogenesis to Clinical Translation.Neuropsychiatric disease and treatment · 2026Review
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
7 authors.
Funding
Abstract
backgroundMajor depressive disorder (MDD) disproportionately affects women, who exhibit a higher prevalence and greater symptom severity than men. However, sex-specific pathophysiological mechanisms remain poorly understood. Emerging evidence implicates gut microbiota-derived metabolites in MDD, but many prior studies have failed to consider sex differences, potentially obscuring critical biomarkers. This study aims to address this gap by characterizing sex-specific fecal metabolite profiles in MDD.
methodsUntargeted metabolomics was used to examine fecal metabolic profiles in 279 participants (117 with MDD and 162 healthy controls). The cohort was stratified by biological sex to identify sex-specific metabolic alterations associated with depressive symptoms through statistical analyses. A machine learning approach incorporating feature selection was employed to identify potential discriminative biomarkers, with a particular focus on female metabolic characteristics.
resultsSex-stratified analysis revealed significant metabolic divergence in female MDD patients compared to healthy controls. Twenty-four differentially abundant metabolites were identified in females, with heptylamine and phenaceturic acid being unique to this group; no significant differences were observed in males. Correlation analyses showed that phenaceturic acid and 1-monoheptadecanoyl glyceride were significantly negatively correlated with depressive symptom severity in females. Besides, a sex-specific diagnostic panel based on five key fecal metabolites demonstrated promising performance in distinguishing female MDD patients from healthy controls.
conclusionBy systematically revealing sex-dependent metabolic alterations, this study identified potential biomarkers for sex-specific diagnostic and therapeutic strategies. These findings highlight the importance of integrating sex-specific perspectives in gut-brain axis research to advance precision medicine in MDD, rather than relying solely on generalized approaches.
trial registrationHuman Research and Ethics Committee of Beijing Anding Hospital, Capital Medical University, China (Approval No. 2017-24), registered on 2018.07.24.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What Socratic holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the Socratic graph.