On the 3rd of October 2025, Robin van Eck will defend his PhD thesis titled ‘Transcending Illness: Personal Recovery in Psychosis’, in the Agnietenkapel of the Universiteit van Amsterdam at 16:00h.
In this study, Robin and colleagues aimed to investigate the relationship between clinical and personal recovery in patients with psychosis. Working at Arkin/Mentrum, Robin saw patients in clinical practice that experienced personal recovery, while still having psychotic symptoms. And on the other hand, he saw patients that had few symptoms, but did not feel recovered. These observations led to this thesis on the relationship between clinical recovery and personal recovery. Clinical recovery means remission of symptoms and functional improvement. Personal recovery is about the development of new meaning and purpose in life as one grows beyond the effects of mental illness.
Robin’s work is embedded in the Academic Collaborative Center Psychotic Disorders where Arkin and Amsterdam UMC collaborate. The Academic Collaborative Center is led by prof. dr. Lieuwe de Haan.
Robin and his team conducted a systematic review and meta-analysis and a longitudinal study at flexible assertive community treatment teams. They found a negative association between symptom severity and personal recovery, however with a small effect-size. Affective symptoms showed a more substantial association with personal recovery than psychotic symptoms. From qualitative interviews the research team learned that clinical treatment interventions can have both positive and negative impact on personal recovery.
They also studied whether factors associated with personal recovery were similar in three groups: patients, unaffected siblings and healthy controls. The factor resilience was linked to personal recovery in all three groups.
In summary, it can be concluded that recovery transcends illness, because:
1. Personal recovery seems to occur largely independent of remission of (psychotic) symptoms.
2. Personal recovery is associated with factors that are universally human.
Symptom reduction is not the only road to personal recovery
For clinical practice this means that symptom reduction is not the only road to personal recovery. It is important to pay attention to affective symptoms. The finding that patients and nonpatients share supportive factors of personal recovery, may suggest that carers and professionals can use their own experiences with coping to help patients recover. Future studies should be co-created with people with lived experience to bring recovery-oriented research and care forward.
On the 3rd of October 2025, Robin van Eck will defend his PhD thesis titled ‘Transcending Illness: Personal Recovery in Psychosis’, in the Agnietenkapel of the Universiteit van Amsterdam at 16:00h. Robin’s thesis is supervised by L. de Haan, and co-supervised by A. Vellinga and N.F. Schirmbeck. More information on this dissertation can be found on the website of Universiteit van Amsterdam.
Robin Michael van Eck works as a psychiatrist and researcher at Arkin/Mentrum and Amsterdam UMC. His work is embedded in the Academic Collaborative Center Psychotic Disorders where Arkin and Amsterdam UMC collaborate. The Academic Collaborative Center is led by prof. dr. Lieuwe de Haan.
