Thomas Hyphantis
Professor of Psychiatry
University of Ioannina, Greece
Principal Investigator
Thomas Hyphantis is a General Adult Psychiatrist and Professor of Psychiatry in the Medical School of the University of Ioannina, Greece. He is also the Director of the Social Medicine and Mental Health, Sector of the Division of Medicine, School of Health Sciences, University of Ioannina, Greece.
He is trained in family systems therapy and psychodynamic psychotherapy. He has contributed to the development of Community Psychiatry in Greece including the development of units which provide mental health care in remote rural areas (Mobile Mental Health Units). He has established the first independent psychodynamically oriented Consultation-Liaison Psychiatry Unit in Greece within the University Hospital of Ioannina.
His research focuses on the complex relations of personality traits, ego defense mechanisms, psychological distress/depression, and quality of life in patients with medical illnesses and he has published more than 90 papers in international peer-reviewed journals. He has focused on rheumatologic disorders, cancer, IBD, irritable bowel syndrome, COPD and diabetes and confirmed the high incidence of psychiatric comorbidity in Greek patients with long-term medical conditions and its relationship with disability, health-related quality of life, poor compliance with and adherence to treatment, treatment decision making preferences or other ill-prone behaviours. He has also highlightened the role of the underlying psychological defensive and coping profile in the formation of a number of outcomes of the disease, and he has established the usually underestimated but crucial role of the somatization process in the formation of health outcomes in cancer, inflammatory bowel disease, glaucoma, COPD and rheumatologic disorders. His research led also to the publication of the standardization of three instruments assessing personality traits for use within the Greek population (Bond’s Defense Style Questionnaire - DSQ-88, Plutchik’s Life Style Index -LSI, and Zuckerman-Khulman Personality Questionnaire -ZKPQ), one instrument assessing depression in Greek medical patients (Patient Health Questionnaire 9) and one instrument assessing somatic symptom severity (PHQ-15).
He is the Secretary of the Consultation-Liaison Sector of the Hellenic Psychiatric Association, Member of the European Association of Psychosomatic Medicine (EAPM) and the European Association for Somatization and Medically Unexplained Symptoms (EURASMUS). He coordinated/participated in EU/national projects as principal investigator and he has served as an evaluation expert for organizations such as the Dutch Cancer Society and the Cyprus Society for the Promotion of Research. He is an Advisory Board Member of the Journal of Psychosomatic Research and a Member of the Editorial Board of the Case Reports in Psychiatry, the Encyclopedia of Quality of Life Research and Well-Being, the World Journal of Gastroenterology and the Journal of Psychology and Clinical Psychiatry.
Francis Creed
Professor of Psychological Medicine
University of Manchester, UK
Francis Creed has been Professor of Psychological Medicine in the Division of Psychiatry at the University of Manchester, UK since 1997. He has directed his research efforts towards evaluating the aetiology and treatment for somatisation and psychological disorders associated with physical disease. He also served as Research Dean for the Faculty of Medicine, Dentistry, Nursing and Pharmacy at the University 1997-2001, as Director of Research & Development for the Manchester Mental Health & Social Care Trust (2002-4), as a member of the U.K. MRC Advisory Board and as President of the European Association of Consultation-Liaison Psychiatry and Psychosomatics. He has served as Editor of the Journal of Psychosomatic Research (1999-2011) and an elected Fellow of the Academy of Medical Sciences. He serves on the Council of the American Psychosomatic Society and is on the Task Force to review the diagnosis of Somatoform Disorders for the forthcoming, fifth version of US Diagnostic and Statistical Manual, on UK NICE group - depression in people with chronic physical health problems, and on WHO Group on the classification of Somatic Distress and Dissociative Disorders. Prof. Francis Creed has published more than 250 papers in International peer-reviewed journals, with more than 8,700 citations and an h-index of 48. Outside of work Francis spends his time travelling to interesting countries, hill walking, learning to play the flute, swimming and playing with his grandchildren.
Stavros H. Constantopoulos
Professor of Pulmonary Medicine
University of Ioannina, Greece
Dr. Constantopoulos is Professor of Pneumonology in the University of Ioannina, and he has served as Medical Director of the Ioannina University Hospital and Director of the A & E Department (AED) of the same hospital. He obtained his MD (1968) and he was awarded his Doctoral Thesis (1976) by the School of Medicine, University of Athens (1976).
Education & Qualifications: 1975-1977: Pulmonary Fellow, Albert Einstein Medical Center of Temple University, Philadelphia, USA, 1984-1985: Guest Researcher Pulmonary Branch, National Heart Lung Blood Institute, NIH, USA; 1988: Visiting Physician, Division of Pulmonary Medicine, Georgetown University, Washington DC, USA.
Prof. Constantopoulos has published more than 60 papers in International peer-reviewed journals, with more than 1,000 citations and an h-index of 20.
Alexandros A. Drosos
Professor of Medicine/Rheumatology
University of Ioannina, Greece
Dr. Drosos is Professor of Medicine/Rheumatology and head of the Rheumatologic Clinic of the University of Ioannina. Graduated from the Medical School of the University of Bari, Italy (1976); Diplomate of Internal Medicine (1983), Doctoral Thesis (1984) and Diplomate of Rheumatology (1986) at the Medical School of the University of Ioannina. Fellow in Rheumatology at the Guy’s Hospital, London, UK (1990) and Guest Researcher at NIH, NIDS, Bethesda, USA (1992-1993).
Prof. Drosos has published more than 250 papers in International peer-reviewed journals, with more than 7,300 citations and an h-index of 35. During the last 10 years he has developed strong research links with the Consultation-Liaison Psychiatry Unit of the Department of Psychiatry, University of Ioannina, which resulted in a number of publications in international peer-reviewed journals.
Elspeth Guthrie
Consultant in Psychological Medicine
Honorary Professor of Psychological Medicine and Medical Psychotherapy
University of Manchester, UK
Professor Guthrie is a former Chair of the Faculty of Liaison Psychiatry, Royal College of Psychiatrists and a former UK Vice President of the Society for Psychotherapy Research. She is a past Programme Director of the North West Higher Training Scheme in General Psychiatry and is currently Chair of the Research Committee of the British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy.
Prof. Guthrie is particularly interested in research which focuses on the relationship between emotional factors, depression and physical symptoms. She is the Programme Director of the UK “CHOICE” project which aims to develop better structures to be put in place to help people have a better quality of life and which research four common, long term conditions and seeks appropriate and effective structures of care instead of having to use emergency or out-of-hours health services, and with which the present ARISTEIA project shares several similarities offering an opportunity to compare reasons of frequent AED use by people with long-term conditions in two different health care systems (UK and Greece).
Prof. Guthrie is also interested in psychological therapies and has conducted a series of randomised controlled trials to test the effectiveness of psychological treatment in people with co-existing physical and psychological ill health problems. She has shown that psychological treatments can be both efficacious but also cost-effectiveness if targeted appropriately at those patients in most need of help. She has also recently demonstrated the effectiveness of brief psychotherapy for people who self-harm.
Prof. Guthrie has published more than 80 papers in International peer-reviewed journals, with more than 2,500 citations and an h-index of 27.
Andre F. Carvalho
Associate Professor of Psychiatry
University of Ceará, Fortaleza, Brazil
Professor AndreF. Carvalho received his medical degree from the Federal University of Ceará(Brazil). He had completed psychiatry residency at the University Foundation Mário Martins in Porto Alegre (Brazil). In 2005, he earned a doctorate degree from the Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul (Brazil). He is currently associate professor of psychiatry at the Federal University of Ceará(Brazil). He leads the psychiatry research group in the same institution. His main areas of research interest are in the field of mood disorders and consultation-liaison psychiatry. He performs both basic and clinical research. His research efforts had resulted thus far in a number of publications in peer-reviewed journals. He is a frequent reviewer of several periodicals. His research has been funded by the ‘National Counsel of Technological and Scientific Development’ (CNPq, Brazil), the ‘Fundaηγo Cearense de Apoio ao Desenvolvimento Cientifico and Tecnologico’ (FUNCAP, Brazil) and the Greek Ministry of Education-Lifelong Learning and Religious Affairs (NSRF European Union) – ARISTEIA project. He collaborates with several researchers abroad and had set the “Fortaleza-Ioannina coalition”, which is a strong collaborative effort between the medical schools of the University of Ioannina (Greece) and the Federal University of Ceará(Brazil).
Athina Tatsioni
Assistant Professor of General Medicine
University of Ioannina, Greece
Prof. Tatsioni is Associate Professor of General Medicine and GP in charge of the AED of the Ioannina University Hospital.
Undergraduate studies, 1991-1997: Medical School, University of Ioannina
Postgraduate studies, 1999-2003: General practice specialty training, Ioannina University Hospital; Jan 2003 - Mar 2003: Clinical attachment, Centre for Integrated Health Care Research of the School οf Health, University of Durham, UK; 2003-2005: Post-doctoral research fellowship, Institute for Clinical Research and Health Policy Studies Tufts - New England Medical Centre, Boston, MA, USA.
Medical board, 2003: General/ Family Medicine Certification in Greece
Doctoral thesis, 2004: Department of Hygiene and Epidemiology, University of Ioannina. Academic appointments, 2005–active: Assistant Professor (adjunct), School of Medicine, Tufts University, Boston, MA, USA.
Editorial experience, 2009–active: Coordinating Editor, European Journal of Clinical Investigation.
Prof. Tatsioni has published 38 papers in International peer-reviewed journals with 617 citations and an h-index of 13.
Vassiliki Paika
PhD Psychologist
Post-doctoral fellow
Vasiliki Paika is a post-doctoral researcher in the research project entitled "Applying effective and beneficial strategies to reduce unscheduled and urgent visits of patients with chronic physical illnesses to Accident and Emergency Departments". Graduated from the School of Psychology of the University of Rethymnon, Crete (2005). She was awarded her Doctoral Thesis entitled “Clinical features and personality traits associated with psychological distress and quality of life in people with colorectal cancer” (2012) by the School of Medicine, University of Ioannina (2012). Vasiliki has published 8 papers in international peer-reviewed journals with 146 citations and an h-index of 7.
Nickolas Theocharopoulos
MD Psychiastrist
Doc fellow
Nikolaos Theocharopoulos is a General Adult Psychiatrist. Graduaded from the Medical School of University of Ioannina, he completed his specialization in psychiatry through the experience he obtained at the Psychiatric Hospital of Tripoli and the Department of Psychiatric of the Ioannina University Hospital. He is a PhD candidate at the Medical School, University of Ioannina. Currently he is a member of the research group of the ABREVIATE project and he also provides psychiatric care in his own private practice.
Angeliki Ninou
MSc Psychologist
Doc fellow
Angeliki Ninou is Clinical Psychologist and Doctoral fellow at the Department of Psychiatry, in the Medical School of the University of Ioannina, Greece. She is also Executive Director in two Psychosocial Rehabilitation Units for people with mental health problems in Ioannina, Greece. After obtaining her diploma at the Department of Philosophy, Education and Psychology of the University of Ioannina, she studied psychology in Vincennes-Saint-Denis University (Paris-VIII), Paris, France. She obtained her Master Degree of Clinical Psychology in Vincennes-Saint-Denis University.
She is trained in the psychopathology of collective violence as approached by the ethnopsyciatric perspective of Pr. Tobie Nathan and the geopolitical psychology as developed by Pr. Françoise Sironi. Her university research focused on the psychological effects of the exile of Greek political prisoners of the Greek Junta (1967-1974), as well as on the treatment of political refugees and asylum seekers in France with trauma symptoms. Her scientific interests also include the clinical implications of cultural attachments and representations in psychopathology, the specificity of the psychological approach of marginalized populations and the analysis of clinical practices in various contexts. Being particularly interested in the historical perspective of clinical practices, she attended the Master of History of Sciences, with mention to the history of psychology, at the Centre Alexandre-Koyré of the École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales, Paris, France.
Her previous interest on the associations between the cultural attachments and beliefs of specific populations and their psychological condition, led her to focus on the illness associated behaviors of people with long-term medical conditions in accordance with their religious and illness representations. She is currently preparing her PhD thesis on the relationship of religious coping and illness perceptions associated with Accident and Emergency Department use by people with chronic medical conditions seeking urgent or unscheduled care. Her thesis is prepared in the context of the Research Program ARISTEIA-ABREVIATE: “Applying effective and Βeneficial strategies to REduce unscheduled and urgent VIsits of patients with chronic physical illnesses to AccidenT and Emergency Departments”.
Elisavet Ntountoulaki
MSc in Psychology
Attached Doc fellow
Elisavet has completed her undergraduate studies in the department of Philosophy, Education & Psychology in the School of Philosophy at the University of Ioannina. After her undergraduate studies, she attended a postgraduate course in the United Kingdom at the University of Sunderland (MSc Psychology). Currently she continues her studies as a Phd student in Social Medicine and Mental Health at the Medical School of the University of Ioannina on “Suicidality and Chronic Medical Illness” as a partner with the research project team named «ARISTEIA- ABREVIATE: «Applying effective and beneficial strategies to reduce unscheduled and urgent visits of patients with chronic physical illnesses to Accident and Emergency Departments».