Study of
patients with irritable bowel syndrome undergoing behavioral
self-management
may strengthen understanding of brain-gut connections
(October 30, 2015) The
microbiome in your gut can affect your brain: More and more data have recently
shown that. But can it go the other way? Can brain changes affect your gut
microbiome? And if so, do these changes affect your health and well-being?
A University at Buffalo researcher is leading a pilot study
to answer that question. The goal is to determine whether behavioral
self-management of a painful and common gastrointestinal disorder may lead to
fundamental changes in the gut microbiome, the digestive system’s bacterial
ecosystem.
The study is being conducted with a subset of patients
enrolled in a large, National Institutes of Health-funded study being led by
Jeffrey Lackner, PsyD, professor in the Department of Medicine in the Jacobs
School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences at the University at Buffalo and
director of the Behavioral Medicine Clinic. That multicenter study focuses on
whether a specific, non-drug treatment — a cognitive behavior therapy program —
can relieve the often-debilitating symptoms of irritable bowel syndrome (IBS)
for which there is no satisfactory medical treatment.