Health, Medical and Neuropsychology

Research

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.

Domain: Health and Wellbeing

Psychological aspects of health and illness are central to the research of the Health, Medical and Neuropsychology section. The research is often interdisciplinary and focuses on a wide range of patient groups including people with (chronic) medical conditions and brain disorders. 

Next to this, our research also focuses on the prevention of disease. A healthy lifestyle and high quality of life for everyone, the wellbeing of the (at-risk) patient, and (learning to) cope with obstacles in daily life are the primary themes. 

In addition to applied research in patients, more fundamental (lab) research focuses on the mechanisms that underlie health and disease.

Pillars: Interdisciplinary research "from bench to bedside"

We focus on three important pillars within this domain:

Fundamental research

Investigating the underlying mechanisms of illness and health.

Diagnostics and treatment

Developing and evaluating innovative diagnostics and treatments.

Evaluation and implementation

Implementing innovative diagnostics and treatments.

The research thus covers the entire process from fundamental research to clinical applications. Characteristic of the research of the Health, Medical and Neuropsychology section is that each project usually comprises several pillars.

All pillars

Topics:

Specific topics that our researchers focus on include healthy lifestyle and self-regulation, medically unexplained symptoms, stress, itch and pain, the placebo effect, work & health, spatial memory, movement control, patient communication, novelty, cognitive inhibition, aging, e-Health, and neuropsychological rehabilitation.

All topics:

Methods: State of the art techniques and new developments

We use a variety of interdisciplinary methods for the research: from experiments in the lab to field research, clinical trials and implementation projects. We use state of the art techniques such as quantitative sensory testing (QST), Virtual Reality, brain measures (such as EEG and fMRI), pharmacological manipulations, and neuropsychological testing, and develop new forms of treatment in the field of e-Health and mobile apps.

Valorization and knowledge utilization: Partnerships

Patients and patient organizations are closely involved in our research. For clinical research we work closely with the Leiden University Treatment Expertise Center (LUBEC) of the Faculty of Social Sciences. In addition, we are part of the Leiden Institute for Brain and Cognition  (LIBC). Moreover, we have close partnerships with the Leiden University Medical Center (LUMC), the Medical Delta network, and many other regional and (inter-) national partners, in particular clinical institutions, social partners such as patient associations and other universities.