Douglas A. Drossman, MD, is professor of medicine and psychiatry at the University of North Carolina (UNC) School of Medicine and co-director of the UNC Center for Functional GI & Motility Disorders. He has had a long-standing interest in the research and evaluation of difficult-to-diagnose and treat GI disorders. He established a program of research in functional GI disorders at UNC more than 25 years ago and has published more than 400 books, articles, and abstracts. He has also published two books, a GI procedures manual and a textbook on functional GI disorders.
Drossman he serves on six editorial boards in medicine, gastroenterology and psychosomatic medicine. He was associate editor of Gastroenterology and GI section editor of the Merck Manual, and is currently editor of Digestive Health Matters as well as the newsletter of the Functional Brain-Gut Research Group.
Drossman received his MD from Albert Einstein College of Medicine in 1970 and completed his medical residency at the University of North Carolina School of Medicine and New York University-Bellevue Medical Center. After his residency, he sub-specialized in psychosocial (psychosomatic) medicine at the University of Rochester School of Medicine and in gastroenterology at the University of North Carolina.
Drossman has been president of the Rome Foundation and scientific director and member of the Board of the International Foundation for Functional GI Disorders (IFFGD). He is a past president of the American Psychosomatic Society, immediate past chair of the American Gastroenterological Association (AGA) Council on Motility and Nerve-Gut Interactions, and founder/past president of the Functional Brain-Gut Research Group of the AGA. He is an AGA fellow and serves on the AGA Media Committee, AGA Nominating Committee, and the AGA Research Awards Panel.
Drossman is a fellow of the American College of Physicians and a master of the American College of Gastroenterology. He is a member of the Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of Sciences Committee on Gulf War and Health: Physiologic, Psychologic, and Psychosocial Effects of Deployment Related Stress. He has been an ad hoc advisory board member of the National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine and is currently serving on the Functional GI and Motility Disorders Working Group of the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases.