Psychosomatic Medicine
Research group leaders
- Name / Titel
- Dr. med. Nina Bischoff
- Funktion
- Oberärztin Kompetenzbereich Psychosomatik, Inselspital Bern
- psychosomatik@insel.ch
- Phone
- +41 31 632 20 14
- Name / Titel
- Prof. Dr. med. Selma Aybek
- selma.aybek@insel.ch
- Phone
- +41 31 632 66 07
- Name / Titel
- Prof. Dr. Martin grosse Holtforth
- martin.grosse@psy.unibe.ch, martin.grosseholtforth@insel.ch
- Phone
- +41 31 632 83 62
Staff
- Johannes Grolimund
- Rebecca Ott
- Martina Studer
- Julian Stewart
- Corinna Terpitz
Research focuses
- Stress induced hyperalgesia
- Assessment of functional-somatoform pain disorders
- Psychotherapy of pain
- Eating disorders
Methods
- Standardized psychological assessments at pre and post
- Semi-standardized interviews
- Algometry and pain visualizations
Short description
Research of the Psychosomatic Competence Center has a clinical focus and strives to foster the understanding and optimization of interventions of so-called „psychosomatic disorders.“ Patients with psychosomatic disorders present with somatic symptoms, which cannot be reduced to a diagnosable organic pathology. Psychosomatic symptoms can better be understood neurofunctionally, i.e., they can be explained by dysfunctional perceptive processes (e.g. pain disorders), or dysfunctional regulatory processes (e.g. stress disorders). Whereas peripheral processes such as somatosensory, endocrine or inflammatory processes, always influence psychological processes, the CNS is regarded as primary. The earlier dualistic mind-body concept needs to be extended towards a spectral model, in which biographical experiences (learning) and biological processes (symptom etiology) are no longer opposites but are aspects of the same subject matter, i.e., the human being.