Rewiring Recovery: Exploring the Gut Microbiome in Alcohol Addiction Recovery

Alcohol use disorder affects more than 600,000 people in England. Recovery support has focused mainly on behavioural and clinical interventions, with limited attention to biological factors that may influence recovery outcomes. Growing evidence suggests the gut microbiome affects mood, cravings and relapse risk through the gut-brain axis. However, no UK study had combined personalised prebiotic interventions with microbiome profiling in people recovering from alcohol use disorder.

Through an Innovate UK Accelerated Knowledge Transfer (AKT) project, the University of Roehampton and Back to Balance Healthcare Group Ltd (BTB) launched RECLAIM GUT to explore whether microbiome-informed interventions could support recovery.

Project Objectives

• Test a personalised microbiome-informed prebiotic intervention.
• Track changes in the gut microbiome during recovery.
• Compare BTB’s rapid microbiome profiling platform with established sequencing methods.
• Assess the platform’s potential for future research and clinical use.

Project Overview

• The project recruited adults in early alcohol recovery through NHS pathways. Participants provided stool samples and received personalised prebiotic formulations informed by microbiome profiling.
• Researchers combined microbiome data with information on gastrointestinal symptoms, stress, diet and lifestyle to understand recovery-related changes over time.
• A key part of the project was the first UK comparison of BTB’s rapid microbiome profiling platform with conventional sequencing methods. Results showed comparable findings while offering the potential for faster, lower-cost analysis.
• The study also demonstrated that a fully remote microbiome-guided intervention could be delivered successfully.

RECLAIM GUT produced the first UK dataset to combine rapid microbiome profiling with personalised prebiotic interventions in people recovering from alcohol use disorder.

The project generated new evidence on gut microbiome changes during recovery and demonstrated the feasibility of delivering microbiome-guided interventions remotely. It also produced data supporting further evaluation of BTB’s rapid profiling platform.

The project established a new research programme linking gut-brain science, personalised nutrition and addiction recovery.

For BTB, the collaboration strengthened the evidence base for its microbiome profiling technology and supported commercial and clinical partnerships. For the University of Roehampton, it strengthened expertise in translational microbiome research and created opportunities for future interdisciplinary studies.

Building on the results, BTB has progressed a Phase II randomised controlled trial application to evaluate microbiome-informed interventions within NHS alcohol recovery services.