Nick Read » IBS

Psychological influences on the gut

admin — Sun, 01 Mar 2009 09:24:52 +0000

The opportunity to retrain as a psychoanalytical psychotherapist sharpened my interest on the influence of the meaning of life experience on gut function and on the role of psychological therapies in treating gut illness. Collaboration with Professor Francis Creed in Manchester led to the award of a large dual centre grant funded by the Medical Research Council. This demonstrated that brief dynamic psychotherapy and SSRI antidepressants could lead to lasting improvements in symptoms of IBS that were unrelated to any alteration in gut physiology.

Read NW (1999). Harnessing the patient’s powers of recovery: The role of the psychotherapies in the irritable bowel syndrome. In Baillieres Best Pract Res Clin Gastroenterol. series. (Ed. Houghton. L .A. and Whorwell P. J.) 13(3):473-87.
Read, N.W, (2000) Bridging the gap between mind and body: do cultural and psychoanalytical concepts of visceral disease have an explanation in contemporary neuroscience? In EA Mayer and CB Saper (Eds) The Biological Basis for Mind Body Interactions. Progress in Brain Research 122, pp 424-443.
Creed F, Guthrie E, Read NW, Thompson D, Ratcliffe J, Fernandez L, Palmer S, Rigby C, Tomenson B. (2000) A randomised trial comparing the cost effectiveness of psychotherapy and antidepressants for severe irritable bowel syndrome. J Psychosom Res 48 (3): 102
Read NW. Panacea or Placebo (2002). What Nutritional Supplements mean to users. In Ransley J, Donnelly J and Read NW. Food and Nutritional Supplements in Health and Disease. Heidelberg. Springer-Verlag.
Read N.W. (2000). Cerebral activation in Irritable Bowel Syndrome. Gastroenterology. 119 (5): 1420-1420.
Hobbis I, Turpin G and Read NW (2002). The Prevalence of Abuse Experiences in Sufferers of Functional Bowel Disease
Creed, F., Ratcliffe, J., Fernandes, L., Palmer, S., Rigby, C., Tomenson, B., Guthrie, E., Read, N., Thompson, D. (2005). Outcome in severe irritable bowel syndrome with and without accompanying depressive, panic and neurasthenic disorders. Br J Psychiatry. 186: 507-515

Diagnostic Criteria for Irritable Bowel Syndrome Irritable Bowel Syndrome is one of the large number of...
Small Intestinal Transit and Motility A collaboration with Dr Immanuel Bergman from the Safety in...
Medical research From 1972 to 2002, I worked as a clinical scientist...

Diagnostic Criteria for Irritable Bowel Syndrome

admin — Sun, 01 Mar 2009 09:20:13 +0000

Irritable Bowel Syndrome is one of the large number of unexplained medical illnesses that form the bulk of todays medical practice. These include chronic fatigue syndrome, fibromyalgia syndrome, unexplained backache, functional dyspepsia, depression and many others. I regard each of these illnesses to be the variable expressions of the same state of mind-body dysphoria, what in the past might have been termed neurasthenia, melancholia, hypochondria, irritable weakness, the spleen or hysteria. I have therefore written several critiques of the Rome diagnostic criteria for IBS.

Read, N.W. (1987). Functional gastroenterological disorders. The Name’s the thing. Gut 28: 1-4.
Read, N.W. (1987). In: Irritable Bowel Syndrome. Scand. J. Gastroenterol. Supplement 130, pp.7-13.
Read, N.W. (1990) Functional gastrointestinal disorders: building castles in the air. Gastroenterology International 3 (4): 182-183.
Read NW. Enough is Enough! (A response to the debate ‘Do the Rome Criteria Stand Up’) Falk Symposium 1997. The Irritable Bowel Syndrome (2001). Chapter 90. Sleisenger and Fordtrans’s Gastrointestinal and Liver Disease, edition 7. Eds Mark Feldman, Lawrence Friedman and Marvin Sleisenger. Harcourt Health Sciences.

Managing your Irritable Bowel I have had many years experience of looking after patients...
Psychological influences on the gut The opportunity to retrain as a psychoanalytical psychotherapist sharpened my...
Proforma medico-legal curriculum vitae Medico-legal curriculum vitae Name: Nicholas W. Read Date of Birth:...

Small Intestinal Transit and Motility

admin — Sun, 01 Mar 2009 08:56:12 +0000

A collaboration with Dr Immanuel Bergman from the Safety in Mines Research Establishment in Sheffield led to the development of a simple device for measuring breath hydrogen, which we exploited for the measurement of small intestinal transit time. The combination of this with scintigraphic measurement of gastric emptying and radioopaque markers for colonic transit allowed us to track a single solid meal through the gastrointestinal tract in health and disease. Using this method we studied the effect of stress, diet, intestinal intubation, patterns of contraction and even rectal distension on intestinal transit; the relationship between transit and absorption and showed how disorders of transit related to symptom patterns in patients with Irritable Bowel Syndrome.

Cann, P.A., Read, N.W., Brown, C., Hobson, N., Holdsworth, C.D. (1983) The Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS) relationship of disorders in the transit of a single solid meal to symptom patterns. Gut 24: 405-411.
Cann, P.A., Read, N.W., Cammack, I., Childs, H., Holden, S., Kashman, R., Longmore, I., Nix, S., Simms, N., Swallow, K., Weller, J. (1983) Psychological stress and the passage of a standard meal through the stomach and small intestine in man. Gut 24: 236-240.
Read, N.W., Al-Janabi, M.N., Cann, P.A. (1984) Breath hydrogen and the pathogenesis of pneumatosis coli. Gut 25: 839-845.
Read, N.W., Al Janabi, M.N., Bates, T.E., Barber, D.C. (1983) The effect of gastrointestinal intubation on the passage of a solid meal through the stomach and small intestine in humans. Gastroenterology 84: 1568-1572.
Holgate, A.M., Read, N.W. (1983) The relationship between small bowel transit time and absorption of a solid meal: influence of metoclopramide, magnesium sulfate and lactulose. Dig. Dis. & Sci. 28: 812-819.
Read, N.W., Al-Janabi, M.N., Barber, D.C. and Edwards, C.A. (1984) The relationship between post-prandial motor activity in the human small intestine and the gastrointestinal transit of food. Gastroenterology 86: 721-727.
Youle, M.S., Read, N.W. (1985) The effect of painless rectal distension on gastrointestinal transit of a solid meal. Dig. Dis. Sci. 29: 902-906.
Read, N.W., Bates, T.E., Al-Janabi, M.N. and Cann, P.A. (1985) The interpretation of the breath hydrogen profile after a solid meal containing unabsorbable carbohydrate. Gut 26: 834-842.
Read, N.W., Al-Janabi, M.N., Holgate, A.M. and Barber, D.C. (1986) Simultaneous measurement of gastric emptying, small bowel residence and colonic filling of a solid meal by the use of the gamma camera. Gut 27: 300-308.

The Ileal Brake The observation that that infusion of fat and to a...
The intestinal regulation of eating behaviour Having shown that intestinal infusion of lipid will delay gastric...
The Intestinal Regulation of Gastric Emptying A series of studies demonstrated how that the slowing of...

Rectal Sensitivity

admin — Sun, 01 Mar 2009 08:32:53 +0000

Irritable Bowel Syndome (IBS) is characterized by increased sensitivity of the rectum. We showed that rectal sensitivity is quite variable and identified how stress, inflammation and sleep deprivation could enhance sensitivity while hypnosis, relaxation and a new class of drugs that blocked serotonin receptors could diminish it. The latter became an important new way of treating IBS.

Read, N.W. The importance of gut feelings. J. Gastrointestinal Motility 1992; 4:79-81.
Prior, A., Read, N.W. Reduction of rectal sensitivity and postprandial motility by Granisetron, a 5HT3 antagonist, in patients with IBS. Alimentary Pharmacology Therap. 1993; 7: 175-180.
Bergin, A.J., Read, N.W. The effects of sleep deprivation on rectal sensitivity in healthy volunteers. Eur. J. Gastroenterol. Hepatol. 1993; 5(7): 527-532.
Read NW, Gwee KA.(1994) The importance of 5HT3 receptors in the gut. Alimentary Pharmacology and therapeutics. 62; l59-73.
Read N.W. (2000). Rectal Distension: From Sensation to Feeling. (Editorial). Gastroenterology 118 (5): 972-974.

Sensitivity to fat in dyspepsia This work unlined the importance of fat in generating dyspeptic...
Disturbed gastroduodenal motility in duodenal ulcer patients A series of studies conducted by Mr David Kerrigan and...
The Intestinal Regulation of Gastric Emptying A series of studies demonstrated how that the slowing of...