Mass General Parkinson’s Disease Gastrointestinal Clinic
Explore This Treatment Program
The Massachusetts General Hospital Center for Neurointestinal Health Parkinson’s Disease Gastrointestinal Clinic is a unique multi-disciplinary clinic to treat the gastrointestinal health of patients with Parkinson’s disease and improve our understanding of these symptoms through a cutting-edge bench and clinical research program.
The gastrointestinal symptoms of Parkinson’s, such as difficulty swallowing, nausea, bloating, and constipation, can be among the most debilitating aspects of the disease. Studies have shown that gastrointestinal symptoms can precede motor symptoms in Parkinson’s disesae by decades, and characteristic alpha-synuclein deposits have been found throughout the nervous system of the gut. We believe treating gastrointestinal symptoms in Parkinson’s disease requires a personalized care plan based on a novel multi-disciplinary approach that incorporates the latest science and treatments targeting the brain-gut connection. We offer specialized motility testing, including esophageal manometry, endoFLIP, and anorectal manometry, to help establish the correct diagnosis and optimize therapy.
Call our clinic at 617-726-5565 to make an appointment.
Our team
Our specialized team is comprised of gastroenterologists, neurologists, scientists, and nutritionists with expertise in Parkinson’s disease. The Mass General Parkinson’s Disease Gastrointestinal Clinic is among the first such multi-disciplinary clinic in the country. Through our highly collaborative and interactive approach, we emphasize patient-centered care at all stages of disease and therapy. We collaborate closely with the MGH Parkinson's Disease and Movement Disorders Clinic.
Trisha Pasricha, MD, MPH, is the lead clinician of the Mass General Parkinson’s Disease Gastrointestinal Clinic whose clinical practice focuses on helping Parkinson’s disease and movement disorder patients with GI symptoms. She is the recipient of an American Gastroenterological Association grant to study the molecular and cellular underpinnings of Parkinson’s disease in the gastrointestinal tract, and she helms the MGH patient registry for Parkinson’s patients with gastrointestinal symptoms and associated research studies.
Roberta Sclocco, PhD, is an Assistant Professor of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation at Spaulding Rehabilitation Hospital, and is also affiliated with the MGH Department of Medicine and the Athinoula A. Martinos Center for Biomedical Imaging. She is a bioengineer with expertise in imaging and neuromodulation, and leads the research effort using brain-gut imaging to assess therapeutic effects and mechanisms of vagal stimulation in Parkinson’s disease.
Research and education
We have an exciting research program that spans the spectrum of Parkinson’s disease from bench to bedside. Our goal is to characterize early gastrointestinal biomarkers of Parkinson’s disease and most importantly, to improve patient symptoms and quality of life through disease-specific GI treatments. We are currently enrolling interested patients in our longitudinal gastrointestinal symptoms of Parkinson’s disease registry and in other clinical and translational studies. Please contact us at 617 726-0196, if you are interested in learning more about our research and becoming involved.
Additionally, we offer clinical rotations in our multi-disciplinary Parkinson’s disease Gastrointestinal Clinic to medical students, residents, and fellows. Please contact Dr. Trisha Pasricha if you are interested in joining our clinic!
Recent publications
“Upper and lower gastrointestinal symptom association and duration preceding Parkinson’s Disease” Gastro Hep Advances. 2022