A new clinical trial launched by London researchers is seeking to determine whether so-called “poop pills” can help manage anorexia nervosa, a potentially deadly eating disorder.
The novel clinical trial, led by researchers at London Health Sciences Centre Research Institute (LHSCRI), Lawson Research Institute of St. Joseph’s Health Care London and Western University, will investigate whether fecal microbiota transplant pills can be used to help treat patients with anorexia nervosa.
Anorexia nervosa is a severe condition in which a person may perceive themselves as overweight and restrict food consumption or exercise excessively to lose weight. Study co-lead Elizabeth Osuch, an LHSCRI researcher and psychiatrist at LHSC, said the condition has the “highest mortality rate of any psychiatric disorder.”
“We’re going to be checking whether there have been changes in their immunological status because that often goes hand in hand with gut microbiome problems,” Osuch said, noting there appears to be a direct link between the gut microbiome and brain function.
“We will be looking for changes in cognitive status and also emotional measures of mood and food cravings and their body image.”
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Anorexia nervosa is a difficult condition to treat and has a high recurrence rate, Osuch said, noting “the gut microbiome is disturbed in anorexia nervosa,” something researchers have observed in both animal models and human studies.
Researchers will evaluate whether the treatment produces changes in participants’ gut microbes, she added.
Study participants – 20 people between the ages of 16 and 35 who have been diagnosed with anorexia nervosa – will ingest capsules, complete questionnaires and provide stool samples before and several times after the intervention, a joint news release from the two research institutes said.
They will then be closely followed to examine the effects of the procedure.
Osuch said because fecal microbiota transplant pills come from healthy donors, researchers believe they may enhance the microbiome of people with anorexia nervosa, which could signal the brain to develop healthier emotional processes, potentially improving nutrition and self-perception.
Although using fecal microbiota transplant pills may seem like an unconventional approach to treating anorexia nervosa, they could offer hope to patients and their families while supporting evidence that mental and physical health are often linked through the gut microbiome, said Jeremy Burton, the study’s co-lead and scientific director of Lawson.
“(Microbiomes) influence so many things, they control so many things that are going on throughout the body,” Burton said. “I’d hope that we can change the microbiome of these people, and that we put their microbiomes in a better place.”
In recent years, the pills have been used in several studies led by LHSCRI and Lawson researchers to explore whether the capsules could help treat other conditions.
In January 2026, The Free Press reported that two London-linked studies suggested fecal transplants could “dramatically” improve treatment outcomes for some cancer patients.
A year earlier, in February 2025, The Free Press reported that a joint clinical trial by LHSCRI and Lawson was seeking to determine whether capsules containing beneficial microbes from stool could help save the lives of pancreatic cancer patients undergoing chemotherapy.
“I think that we’re on a brave new frontier of medical treatment that involves working with the gut microbiome, and I think it’s a very exciting time,” Osuch said.
Born and raised in London, Brian Williams joined The Free Press in 2023 and has reported extensively on London and the region. His primary focuses are health care and Elgin County.
bwilliams@postmedia.com