MANTRA, LIBERATE and RAP Studies - Psychological Support and Therapy for Gut Disorders
Drugs and Surgery Can't Cure Everything
Many patients with gut symptoms are not helped by drugs or surgical treatment. However psychological or behavioural therapies have been shown to improve or cure many such patients.
Gut symptoms such as pain, irritable bowel syndrome, constipation, bloating heartburn and incontinence are common. Personal factors and trauma often underlie these disorders which can be cured with broadly based therapies beyond drugs and surgery.
AGIRF supports researchers at St Vincent’s Hospital and the University of Melbourne. These researchers are establishing clinical services within a traditional medical setting that provide holistic broadly-based care, training and research in multi-disciplinary care for Australian and international health-care workers. An outstanding team of therapists, including psychiatrists, psychologists, pain specialists and behavioural therapists work together with gastroenterologists and surgeons to provide a broad range of psychological or behavioural treatments. It serves as a new model of effective health care delivery.
AGIRF supports many research studies in this area. The MANTRA Study (Multi-disciplinary Treatment for Functional Gut Disorders) aims to research treatments for gut symptoms without drugs or surgery.
The RAP Study (Rehabilitation After Pouch) aims to improve bowel function in patients with an ileoanal pouch using behavioural feedback therapy.
The LIBERATE Study (Behavioural Treatment in Inflammatory Bowel Disease) aims to improve bowel symptoms in patients experiencing functional symptoms from their Inflammatory Bowel Disease.
AGIRF has been instrumental in helping establish the Psychological Medicine Unit within the Department of Gastroenterology at St Vincent’s Hospital in Melbourne.
A holistic approach to the treatment of gut conditions can lead to symptom relief or cure, often when drug therapy or surgery are not appropriate or have failed
PROFESSOR MICHAEL KAMM
PROFESSOR OF
GASTROENTEROLOGY
The University of Melbourne and
St Vincent’s Hospital
ASSOC. PROFESSOR MICHAEL SALZBERG
ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR OF PSYCHIATRY
St Vincent’s Hospital
and The University of Melbourne
DR. OLA KRUPINSKA
PSYCHIATRIST
Central Melbourne Gastroenterology
DR. CHAMARA BASNAYAKE
GASTROENTEROLOGIST
St Vincent’s Hospital
and The University of Melbourne
DR. JIM KANTIDAKIS
PSYCHOLOGIST
Swinburne University of Technology and Central Melbourne Gastroenterology
ANGELA KHERA
BEHAVIOURAL THERAPIST AND PHYSIOTHERAPIST
St. Vincent's Hospital, University of Melbourne, Central Melbourne Gastroenterology and Caulfield Hospital
ANNALISE STANLEY
RESEARCH NURSE SPECIALIST
St Vincent’s Hospital
DR. AMY WILSON-O'BRIEN
CLINICAL SCIENTIST
St Vincent’s Hospital
and University of Melbourne
ISABELLA LEES-TRINCA
BEHAVIOURAL THERAPIST AND PHYSIOTHERAPIST
St. Vincent's Hospital and Central Melbourne Gastroenterology