Knowledge, patterns of consumption, and attitudes of patients with major depression disorders toward probiotics Abdulrahman Ismaeel Janahi, Iman Fahmi Mahmoud, Ibrahim Mohammed Al Alhareth, Alaa Yousef Alnakhli, Sara Nasser Almisrea, Hadel Mohammed Aljohani, Omar A. Alhaj, Adla Bakri Hassan and Haitham Jahrami (Author affiliations can be found at the end of the article) Abstract Purpose – The complex interaction between the gut flora and central nervous systems made probiotics one promising natural candidate for the management and treatment of depression. Hence, the purpose of this paper was to assess the knowledge, patterns of consumption and attitudes of patients with depression toward probiotics. Design/methodology/approach – In this cross-sectional study, and through simple random sampling, 200 adults who were diagnosed with various depressive symptoms were selected. A link to a self-reported survey was sent to them with the aim of collecting sociodemographic data, assessing participants’ attitudes and knowledge toward probiotic consumption, and measuring their depression status via the Patient Health Questionnaire (PHQ-9). Findings – A total of 164 participants (82%) provided usable responses. Approximately 55% of participants had moderate depression (PHQ-9). Participants (22.6%) tend to comply with their psychiatrists’ advice regarding probiotics more than other health specialists’ advice (p = 0.04). Only 59 (36%) had knowledge about probiotics and believed that probiotics should be consumed regularly and not only after an antibiotic course. However, many tended to follow marketing tricks and were willing to buy the most expensive and advertised probiotic products. Participants showed some differences in their attitude and knowledge toward probiotics according to symptoms severity; however, the differences were insignificant (p = 0.88). Originality/value – To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this study is believed to be the first investigation assessing the probiotics’ knowledge, patterns of consumption and attitude of patients with various depression symptoms in Bahrain. The findings of this study may help improve the well-being of Declarations. Funding: No Funding was received. Conflict of interest/Competing interests: All authors have no conflicts of interest to declare. Availability of data and material: Available upon request. Ethical approval: All procedures performed in studies involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional and/or national research committee and with the 1964 Helsinki declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards. Ethical approval was obtained from the Secondary Healthcare Research Ethics Committee at the Ministry of Health, Bahrain. Informed consent: Informed consent was obtained to participation and publication from all participants in this study. Code availability: Available upon request. Depression disorders toward probiotics Received 19 February 2021 Revised 23 March 2021 31 March 2021 2 April 2021 Accepted 2 April 2021 Nutrition & Food Science © Emerald Publishing Limited 0034-6659 DOI 10.1108/NFS-02-2021-0068 The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available on Emerald Insight at: https://www.emerald.com/insight/0034-6659.htm