Dr. van Tilburg is an Assistant Professor of Medicine in the Division of Gastroenterology and Hepatology. She received her Master's degree in Economic Psychology and her PhD in Health Psychology at Tilburg University in The Netherlands. Subsequently, she completed a three-year postdoctoral fellowship in Endocrinology and Medical Psychology at Duke University Medical Center. In 2002, Dr. van Tilburg joined the UNC Center for Functional GI & Motility Disorders.
Dr van Tilburg conducts studies both in adults and children but her main interest is in pediatric functional GI disorders. Compared to adults, functional GI disorders in children have received relatively little attention. Dr van Tilburg has significantly expanded the Center’s research activities in this area. Her research can broadly be divided in two areas of interest:
(1) First Dr van Tilburg’s research focuses on understanding how functional GI disorders in children are developed and maintained. Studies in this area are aimed at determining the role of several factors in functional GI disorders including: Environmental factors such as abuse, food poisoning, nutrition; Family factors such as parental worries/coping/knowledge; Validation of diagnostic criteria; and Genetic factors.
(2) Dr van Tilburg’s second line of research is focused on how to effectively involve parents and children in their own care. She is interested in making self-care more widely available through the use of long distance therapy and involving parents as therapists. In collaboration with Dr Palsson and Marsha Turner, she has developed a very effective Guided Imagery treatment for chronic abdominal pain in children which can be used from the comfort of the child’s home. There are plans to apply this type of home-based treatment in other childhood disorders such as inflammatory bowel disease, cancer pain, migraines and fecal incontinence.
Dr. van Tilburg has received funding for her work from the NIH, Rome foundation, International Foundation of Functional Gastrointestinal Disorders, American College of Gastroenterology, pharmaceutical companies and through the Center. She collaborates with pediatricians and researchers at her own and numerous other institutions including the following: Duke University, Wake Forest University, Baylor College of Medicine, Goryeb Children’s hospital, Emma’s Children’s Hospital, Lehman College, Cook Children's Medical Center, National University of Singapore and the University of Washington. Besides these collaborators Dr van Tilburg’s research team includes Megan Squires, BA (research coordinator) and several graduate and undergraduate students. For her work, she was awarded the 2007 Pediatric Junior Investigator Award of the International Foundation for Functional Gastrointestinal Disorders (IFFGD).
Research Interests
Functional Abdominal Pain, Irritable Bowel Syndrome, constipation, and fecal incontinence in children and adolescents.
Assistant Professor of Medicine