The major aim is to unravel the psychoneurobiological factors, such as expectations, sensitization and attentional processes, that affect the experience of itch and pain in acute and chronic state.

The major aim is to determine the role of expectancy mechanisms (e.g., verbal suggestion, classical conditioning, and imagery) in placebo and nocebo effects on different psychical sensations (e.g., pain, itch, and fatigue) and how these expectancy mechanisms can be used to optimize health.

The major aim is to unravel the processes underlying psychological factors, such as attention and emotions, influencing the experience of itch and pain in healthy and chronic state.

If you expect something is going to itch, the itching really does get worse. Leiden health psychologist Danielle Bartels has proved the effect of negative expectations on itching. What’s remarkable is that this nocebo effect in itching can be reversed. ‘That offers good prospects for clinical practice,’…

If a pill containing no active ingredients still helps, this positive expectation is called a placebo effect. A negative expectation is called a nocebo effect. Both can be produced by verbal suggestions and conditioning. According to Andrea Evers’ research group, combining these is the most promising…

PhD Defence

Lecture

Two Leiden researchers of the Institute of Psychology have been given the opportunity to realise their research plans for the coming three years thanks to a Veni grant from the Netherlands organisation for scientific research. Hanneke Hendriks is researcher in the field of Social and organisational…

... which build on self-regulation and stress-regulation theories and considers the modification of cognitions as a mediator of therapeutic change.

PhD Defence

The research carried out within the unit Health, Medical and Neuropsychology investigates the psychological factors of health and disease, and the development of innovative treatment.

To what extent do your thoughts and experiences affect your health? What is the impact of the placebo effect on medical treatments, for example for pain and itching? In this project, we will collect stories of people who have experiences with the efficacy of placebo effects, for example as a patient…

The major aim is to determine the role of stress and stress-related psychophysiological mechanisms (e.g., cognitions, behaviors, and physiological stress responses) of patients with chronic inflammatory conditions and to develop and evaluate stress management interventions to alter the psychophysiological…

Positive expectations about a medicine may help it to work more effectively, even if you tell patients about this placebo effect. The reverse, the nocebo effect, works in the same way. Health psychologist Stefanie Meeuwis found evidence for this in various studies. PhD defence 3 June.

During the 76th American Psychosomatic Society conference in Louisville, Kentucky from 7-10 march 2018 Aleksandrina Skvortsova was awarded with one of the APS Scholar Awards. Stefanie Meeuwis was honored to present her poster in the APS Citation Poster session

Fourteen promising researchers from Leiden University have been given the opportunity to realise their research plans for the coming years thanks to a Veni grant from the NWO. This year, these subsidies have been granted to studies of the influence of noise on the great tit, the conditions necessary…

Health psychologist Aleksandrina Skvortsova has made clever use of the Pavlov effect to link the ‘cuddle’ hormone oxytocin with the placebo effect. This effect can alter the level of oxytocin in the body, making it possible for people to reduce the amount of medicine they need while still feeling good.…

Sylvia van Beugen has won the Herman Musaph Literature award 2016 for the best publication about psychodermatology. Her publication describes the importance of body awareness in chronic skin conditions, such as psoriasis.

The major aim is to develop, evaluate, and implement screening instruments and self-management interventions for patients with chronic conditions in order to optimize health care by tailoring interventions to those patients at risk for adjustment problems.

The Institute of Psychology is committed to play a prominent role in teaching and research at the national and international level.

The major aim is to develop, evaluate, and implement disease-generic cognitive-behavioral interventions through the internet in order to optimize tailored health care for patients with chronic somatic conditions.

The major aim is to unravel the central mechanisms of how peoples’ expectancies affect physical symptoms, immune and endocrine responses, and related health outcomes, through the use of pioneering multidisciplinary methods in experimental studies in healthy and clinical populations.

Health psychologist Andrea Evers is one of the 19 new members, selected by the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences (KNAW), who have been inaugurated on 16 September 2019. The Academy has now about 550 members.

Five Leiden researchers have been nominated as members of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences (KNAW).They will be inaugurated on 16 September.

Gravitation programme grant Co-applicants Bernet Elzinga en Andrea Evers are two of the captains of the six teams, all led by main applicant Anita Jansen, Maastricht University.

From anxiety disorders to an extremely unhealthy lifestyle. In the Leiden University Treatment and Expertise Centre (LUBEC) children and adults receive treatment that is in line with the newest scientific insights. The centre is also a training and research institution, so students and researchers are…

Operating on tsunami victims, coordinating emergency aid during a civil war and the croaking of frogs in the surgery: Menno Swier worked as a doctor of tropical medicine in Papua New Guinea and Indonesia. He is now a GP on Terschelling and here too there is never a dull moment.

Medicines can work even if they have no active ingredient. The first international scientific conference on placebos will take place in Leiden from 2 to 4 April. Placebo researcher Andrea Evers, who is also chairing the conference, answers some pressing questions.

Many of our staff and students have won prizes over the past year. Others have been awarded a subsidy, or, because of their eminence in their field, they have been appointed members of academic societies or have taken up positions in the community. Reasons enough to be proud of them and to include them…