Erland Axelsson

My primary research and clinical interests lie in behavioral medicine and the relationship between psychological processes and physical complaints. I am also interested in the philosophy of science and research methodology. In the past 10 years, I have done work primarily in eHealth strategies to psychological treatment and the assessment and characteristics of pathological health anxiety.

My main lines of research are:

1) Common mechanisms in, and transdiagnostic psychological treatments for, distress related to persistent somatic symptoms

2) Understanding and managing negative psychological long-term effects of cancer, and especially in cancer forms with an otherwise relatively good prognosis

3) Understanding and managing pathological health anxiety, i.e., the recurrent and excessive fear of, or preoccupation with, serious disease

Availability:

• Supervision of research degrees
• Supervision of taught course research projects
• External examining
• Grant application assessment
• Reviewing for field-specific journals/conferences

Open access clinical tools and resources, no permission needed

Health anxiety

* Free-to-use introduction and manual for delivering cognitive behavior therapy for pathological health anxiety: https://www.kompetenscentrumpsykiskohalsa.se/utbildning/stegvis-vard/halsoangest/

* Free-to-use and translate Health Preoccupation Diagnostic Interview (HPDI) for the assessment of DSM-5 somatic symptom disorder and illness anxiety disorder: https://osf.io/ydmcf/

* Free-to-use and translate brief screening module for pathological health anxiety, an instrument that has not undergone psychometric evaluation: https://osf.io/7wgk2/

* Free-to-use and translate Health Anxiety Behavior Inventory (HABI) for the assessment of behaviors commonly seen in health anxiety, useful for example to track patient progress throughout treatment: https://osf.io/p2gv6/

* Free-to-use dataset of studies reporting mean trait health anxiety in student samples from 1985 to 2017:https://osf.io/wy8c4/

Other behavioral medicine and psychiatry

* Free-to-use Swedish translations of the Patient Health Questionnaire (PHQ-15) and Somatic Symptom Scale 8 (SSS-8):https://osf.io/7fkge/

* Free-to-use manual for delivering transdiagnostic exposure-based therapy for distress related to persistent somatic symptoms:https://osf.io/cnbwj/

* Free-to-use and translate 13 brief questionnaires for the measurement of target variables and processes of change in cognitive behavior therapy for major depression, panic disorder and social anxiety disorder:https://osf.io/zac4p/

* Free-to-use dataset of studies reporting continuous self-report outcomes from psychological treamtents for adults with irritable bowel syndrome from 1983 to 2022, tabulated with 9 outcome domains: https://osf.io/5yh9a/

Supervisorships 2025

* Main supervisorships: Jonna Hybelius (KI, 2022-), Hana Fotoohi (KI, 2025-)

* Co-supervisorships: Julia Winter (KI, Christel Hedman, 2022-)

Former supervisorships

* Co-supervisorships: Karoline Kolaas (KI, Anne H Berman, 2023), Susanna Österman (KI, Volen Z Ivanov, 2025)