One of the main objectives of UNITI is to conduct a large scale multicentre Randomised Clinical Trial (RCT) with a combination of interventions. Five clinical centres (partners of UNITI consortium) will have a target of recruiting 100 patients each over a period of 9 months.
KU Leuven (Leuven, Belgium) is an institution for research and education with international appeal. All programs at this University are based on the innovative research of its scientists and professors. KU Leuven ranks among the best 50 universities worldwide and is 7th most innovative university (Reuters)!
Expertise of the Health Psychology Department: Chronic pain, breathlessness and tinnitus. Learning mechanisms in the transition from acute aversive sensations to chronic somatic symptoms. Experimental pain research in humans. Psychophysiology (including EEG, EMG and Skin conductance) and behavioural test (Avoidance paradigms). Longitudinal cohort studies. Functional adaptation. Quality of Life. Personalized cognitive- behavioral treatment/ Single-Case Experimental Designs infrastructure and/or any major items of technical equipment, relevant to the proposed work: Ca 250 m2 behavioral labs with extensive behavioural tests and psycho - physiology set-up.
KUL has extensive expertise in research in behavioral medicine & health psychology, and has successfully conducted experimental, clinical, and treatment studies using RCT designs as well as single- case experimental designs. Cima is the lead author of the European Guideline s for tinnitus and the principal investigator of the most influential study on CBT in tinnitus. Vlaeyen is among the driving researchers for single-case experimental designs.
