From 1992, there has been an ongoing cooperation between the departments of Health Psychology of the Utrecht University and our department on several themes relating to biopsychosocial wellbeing and functioning of patients with rheumatic diseases:
- Psychological well-being and physical disability in recent-onset rheumatoid arthritis
- Stress, coping and cognitive behavioral mechanisms in rheumatoid arthritis
- Psycho-neuro-immunological mechanisms in rheumatoid arthritis
- Diagnosis, pathogenesis, and treatment of fibromyalgia
- Fatigue and biobehavioral mechanisms in primary Sjögren’s Syndrome and Systemic Lupus Erythematosus
- Psychological, physiological, and clinical aspects of emotion regulation in rheumatoid arthritis
- Emotions as triggers of symptoms in patients with fibromyalgia and the modulating role of emotion regulation
- interpersonal aspects of living with a chronic rheumatic condition.
This collaboration has led to 2 successfully defended these (Dekkers C, Middendorp H)