The study emphasizes subgroup differences, particularly between male and female responses to the prebiotic intervention. However, Figure 3 presents PCL-5 score changes without adjusting for potential confounding variables like baseline trauma severity, dietary differences, or medication use. Were these factors controlled for in the analysis, and if not, could they explain the observed sex-specific effects? Moreover, while the microbiota data in Figure 6 demonstrates taxonomic shifts, the lack of detailed functional analysis limits the mechanistic understanding of how these changes influence PTSD symptoms. Could future studies integrate metagenomic or metabolomic profiling to better elucidate these pathways?
