For nearly ten years, the day clinic for psychiatry at ZOL offered a multidisciplinary group program for patients with somatoform complaints, including fibromyalgia and chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS). Within this program, questionnaires were administered at various points to track the evolution of individual patients. This study analyzes the results at a group level.
The findings of this study were published in the Journal of Psychosomatic Research by M. Van Den Houte and colleagues in 2017. A master's thesis by C. Gilio and S. Verdickt in 2021 further explored the progression of patients with or without childhood trauma following the treatment.
Maaike van den Houte presented the findings on several occasions, including the TRACE Inspiration Day in Genk in 2018 and lunch seminars at ZOL in 2016. Research was also conducted on the relationship between childhood trauma, perfectionism, and pain severity in fibromyalgia patients, presented at a Pain Research Meeting in Marburg, Germany in 2016.
The study was conducted between 2014 and 2020 and involved the following partners: drs. Maaike van den Houte, prof.dr. Omer van den Bergh, prof.dr. Ilse Van Diest, dr. Katleen Bogaerts (Department of Health Psychology, KU Leuven), Mevr. Karine Kellens (psychologist ZOL), and dr. Jef De Bie (liaison psychiatrist ZOL).
