Erland Axelsson

My primary research and clinical interests are 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 the psychological long-term effects of cancer, and especially 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

Open access clinical tools and resources, no permission needed

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

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

* 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 2024

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

* Co-supervisorships: Susanna Österman (KI, Volen Z Ivanov, 2018-), Julia Winter (KI, Christel Hedman, 2022-)

Former supervisorships: Karoline Kolaas (KI, Anne H Berman, 2023)