Brenda Toner, PhD

Dr. Toner received her Ph.D. in 1983 from the University of Toronto, followed by a post-doctoral fellowship in Eating Disorders. Dr. Toner is currently Co-Head, Social Equity & Health Research, at the Centre for Addiction Mental Health and Professor and Head Women’s Mental Health Program, Director, Fellowship Program, Department of Psychiatry, University of Toronto. Dr. Toner has published and presented on a variety of health related problems that are disproportionately diagnosed in women including eating disorders, anxiety, depression, chronic pelvic pain, chronic fatigue and irritable bowel syndrome. She is particularly interested in investigating factors in the lives of women that cut across diagnoses including violence, body dissatisfaction, poverty, discrimination, and gender role socialization. She has received funding to develop and validate a gender role socialization scale for women.

One of Dr. Toner’s major research interests is psychosocial assessment and treatment of functional gastrointestinal disorders in women. Dr. Toner has received international recognition for her work on cognitive-behavioral therapy for Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS) and the treatment manual for a randomized control trial for cognitive-behavioral group therapy has been published in a book by Guilford Press. Dr. Toner has also developed and validated 2 scales in the area of IBS: a treatment satisfaction scale and a cognitive scale for functional bowel disorders.

In recognition for her work in this field, Dr. Toner received the Research Scientist Award for outstanding clinical research in brain-gut interactions, Functional Brain Gut Group, American Gastrointestinal Association.

Dr. Toner was a co-investigator on a large National Institute of Health funded, multi-centered trial of functional bowel disorders in women. Results of this study, Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy Versus Education and Desipramine Versus Placebo for Moderate to Severe Functional Bowel Disorders, has been published in Gastroenterology, a high-impact journal in the field.

Currently, Dr. Toner is the Principal Investigator of a large CIHR clinical trial of functional bowel disorders in women.

Contact:

Dr. Brenda B. Toner
Centre for Addiction and Mental Health
Social Equity & Health Research
455 Spadina Avenue, Suite #300
Toronto, Ontario 
M5S 2G8