Registration
Lounge
Registration of your presence at the congress is done at the information desk on the first floor.
Speakers
Thom van den Heuvel
DICIM brings together insurance physicians and medical advisors to share knowledge, build professional connections, and remain at the forefront of a field that is continuously evolving.
By engaging with one another and exchanging insights, we enhance the quality of the assessments we make and the advice we provide.
Work participation is often treated as an outcome of successful treatment. This keynote challenges that assumption.
Drawing on trials of work-focused CBT and MCT, Individual Placement and Support, and chronic pain interventions, I will explore how integrating work directly into treatment can improve both clinical outcomes and sustainable work participation.
A review of evidence on what predicts the risk of work disability and how to support sustainable work participation
This presentation reviews evidence on risk factors for sickness absence, disability pension, and delayed return to work at different levels – from individual to work-related. It also summarises the effectiveness of workplace interventions and considers how modifiable risks can be identified and sustainable work participation supported in healthcare
Brain–Gut Treatments in Irritable Bowel Syndrome and Inflammatory Bowel Disease: The Case for Routine Clinical Adoption
Convergent evidence supports a biopsychosocial model in which cognitive, affective and behavioural factors influence stress related neuroimmune changes and central sensitisation, interacting to perpetuate symptoms across irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) and quiescent Inflammatory Bowel Disease (IBD).
In this keynote I will use my work on IBS to trace the pathway from theory and identified psychosocial mechanisms through intervention development, feasibility testing, and clinical and cost effectiveness studies, to the implementation work required to embed evidence based behavioural interventions into routine medical care. I will argue that this requires collaboration with people with IBS and multiple stakeholders, including industry partners and policymakers. I will also contend that the dichotomy between “functional” and “medical” symptoms is unhelpful and may impede progress toward truly integrative care. I will present evidence that brain–gut models and related cognitive behavioural treatments are relevant to people with IBD as well as IBS and show how a similar pathway for symptom management in IBD could be a cost effective approach to managing the condition. Finally, I will demonstrate that treating depression and psychological distress in IBD can positively affect inflammatory markers and reduce healthcare costs.
From Evidence to Practice: How to Make Work Part of Treatment
How can clinicians translate work-focused treatment into everyday practice? In this interactive session, we will use clinical cases to explore how to address work from the first consultation, identify barriers to participation, challenge avoidance, and integrate psychological treatment with practical return-to-work strategies.
Somatic Symptoms: Perception, Coping, and Functional Assessment
Respecting Beliefs, Expanding Options: Helping Patients Consider Psychological Approaches to Persistent Symptoms
When patients present with persistent physical symptoms despite negative medical tests, they are often told there is no obvious disease process or that their symptoms are medically unexplained. Rather than feeling reassured, many patients become more anxious, worry that something has been missed, feel medically gaslit, and/or believe the clinician has dismissed their experience as "all in their head".
This workshop focuses on the importance of a positive diagnosis—explaining to patients what they do have rather than only what they do not. Effective communication begins by exploring the patient’s experience and beliefs about their symptoms before offering an explanation. I will demonstrate how a brief, empathic assessment of symptom meaning, threat appraisal, and coping behaviours creates the foundation for a credible, collaborative biopsychosocial explanation.
Using our work on irritable bowel syndrome as a case example, I will show how to present a biopsychosocial formulation that validates the patient’s experience, links cognitive affective and behavioural drivers to symptom perpetuation, and introduces brain–gut treatments as plausible, evidence based options.
From Evidence to Practice: How to Make Work Part of Treatment
How can clinicians translate work-focused treatment into everyday practice? In this interactive session, we will use clinical cases to explore how to address work from the first consultation, identify barriers to participation, challenge avoidance, and integrate psychological treatment with practical return-to-work strategies.
Somatic Symptoms: Perception, Coping, and Functional Assessment
Respecting Beliefs, Expanding Options: Helping Patients Consider Psychological Approaches to Persistent Symptoms
When patients present with persistent physical symptoms despite negative medical tests, they are often told there is no obvious disease process or that their symptoms are medically unexplained. Rather than feeling reassured, many patients become more anxious, worry that something has been missed, feel medically gaslit, and/or believe the clinician has dismissed their experience as "all in their head".
This workshop focuses on the importance of a positive diagnosis—explaining to patients what they do have rather than only what they do not. Effective communication begins by exploring the patient’s experience and beliefs about their symptoms before offering an explanation. I will demonstrate how a brief, empathic assessment of symptom meaning, threat appraisal, and coping behaviours creates the foundation for a credible, collaborative biopsychosocial explanation.
Using our work on irritable bowel syndrome as a case example, I will show how to present a biopsychosocial formulation that validates the patient’s experience, links cognitive affective and behavioural drivers to symptom perpetuation, and introduces brain–gut treatments as plausible, evidence based options.
The power of expectations: About placebo and nocebo effects and their clinical relevance
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What if someone has a good job and a great salary, but has been unhappy at work for a long time? In this humorous and thought-provoking talk, Anne-Marije Buckens invites you to reflect on job satisfaction, sustainable employability and the courage to make a new choice. Why do people stay where they are? And what does it take to finally open the door of the golden cage? Expect relatable stories, sharp insights and a fresh perspective on people who feel stuck in their work.
