For Providers

Patient handout

A one-page handout explaining the gut-brain connection in plain language.

It covers why a normal workup makes sense, what amplifies symptoms, and where the gut-brain layer fits alongside medical and dietary treatment.

The Gut-Brain Connection & Your Digestive Symptoms

Talking to Patients about GI Symptoms & the Gut-Brain Connection

Five-part sequence (adapted from the work of Dr. Douglas Drossman).

Validate | before anything else
These patients have usually been disbelieved somewhere already.
If validation isn't first, everything after it reads as a brush-off.

Name It | a positive diagnosis (not a diagnosis of exclusion)
"This is what you have," not "we ruled everything out."

Mechanism | early & before the offer
Explain the gut-brain pathway early in treatment. Brought up later, it can feel like a last resort. And before any treatment is offered, because a brain-directed treatment for a gut problem lands as “you think this is in my head” if the patient doesn't yet know the two are physically connected.

Offer | understanding & regulation skills
Understanding what’s happening & how to work with it.
Framed the way we'd frame migraine or arthritis. Managing, not curing.

Stay | "I'm still your provider."
Assures the patient they haven't been handed off.

If they push back
Some patients will have a medical finding or clear dietary issues that they’ll raise.

"But my GI found a hernia." "But dairy clearly sets me off."

Agree and reorient.

Yes, those matter. I'm suggesting we add the gut-brain part, because for these conditions it's the one that's usually been missing."

References

Keefer L, Palsson OS, Pandolfino JE. Best Practice Update: Incorporating Psychogastroenterology Into Management of Digestive Disorders. Gastroenterology 2018;154:1249–1257. (PDF of the article)

Drossman DA. 2012 David Sun Lecture: Helping your patient by helping yourself — how to improve the patient-physician relationship by optimizing communication skills. Am J Gastroenterol 2013;108:521–528. (PDF of the article)

Drossman DA, Chang L, Deutsch JK, et al. A review of the evidence and recommendations on communication skills and the patient-provider relationship: a Rome Foundation Working Team Report. Gastroenterology 2021;161:1670–1688. (PDF of the article)

Drossman DA, Tack J, Ford AC, et al. Neuromodulators for functional gastrointestinal disorders (disorders of gut-brain interaction): a Rome Foundation Working Team Report. Gastroenterology 2018;154:1140–1171. (link)