From Chaos to Clarity? The Quest for Effective Probiotics in Antibiotic-Associated Diarrhea

Antibiotic-associated diarrhea (AAD) frequently complicates treatment of infections. A recent randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial tested a proprietary probiotic mixture and found that it reduced the incidence of AAD by 16%. This is encouraging for patients, but future progress on probiotics for AAD and other conditions depends on transparency around strain selection, probiotic design guided by preclinical mechanistic studies, and rigorously conducted human studies.