Prof. Barbara main research interest is in the field of functional
bowel disorders. In particular he has conducted original research
in the field of the pathophysiology (with particular interest in
neuro-immune interactions in patients with irritable bowel
syndrome) and therapy (anti-inflammatory compounds,
intestinal microbiota) in patients with the irritable bowel
syndrome.
Abdominal pain is
the one of the commonest causes of referral in clinical
practice with abdominal or pelvic viscera commonly
implicated or proven to be the site of origin. Such pain may be
caused by visceral stretching as occurs with obstruction,
inflammation as occurs in inflammatory bowel disease/appendicitis,
or invasion/compression of nerves such as might occur with cancer.
In a sense, acute pain e.g. trauma/surgery or that with a treatable
cause e.g. inflammation, is less problematic than chronic pain,
particularly when this is unexplained. Highly relevant to the
latter are very common so-called ‘functional gastrointestinal
disorders' (FGID), such as ‘irritable bowel syndrome' (IBS). These
conditions are responsible for up to 40% of patients seen in
secondary GI practice and are characterized by recurrent,
unexplained symptoms causing significant morbidity with attendant
costs. A smaller group of patients have intractable symptoms
related to GI neuromuscular disease (GINMD) with concomitant high
morbidity and some mortality. As a disease area, VP thus has a much
greater population impact than somatic neuropathic pain and has
been repeatedly identified as an orphan area of research by
specialist organisation.
