A team of researchers from Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Harvard T. H. Chan School of Public Health, Rush Medical College and Brigham and Women's Hospital and Harvard Medical School has found a link between the use of antibiotics by middle-aged women and cognitive decline later in life. The group has published a paper describing their work on the open-access site PLOS ONE.

Prior research has suggested that there is a connection between gut microbiome health and mental health—communication between the gut and the central nervous system has been labeled the gut-brain axis. And some studies have shown an apparent link between problems in the gut and mental diseases, such as depression and schizophrenia. Prior research has also shown that antibiotics use can lead to serious disruptions in the microbiome. This is not surprising, since the microbiome is made up partly of bacteria. In this new effort, the researchers found a link between antibiotics use by women during middle age and a larger than normal degree of cognitive decline.

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