Table 1.

Individual projects and project leaders of the SOMACROSS research unit

Project No.	Project title	Project content	Project leader(s)	Institution(s)
P1	Fatigue in primary biliary cholangitis: factors associated with severity and persistence as future therapeutic targets	P1 examines the disease-specific biological and generic psychosocial factors which contribute to fatigue in patients with primary biliary cholangitis and primary sclerosing cholangitis and aims to determine its course over time.	Dr. Anne Toussaint, PhD	Department of Psychosomatic Medicine and Psychotherapy, UKE
			Professor Dr. Christoph Schramm, MD	Martin Zeitz Centre for Rare Diseases and I. Department of Medicine, UKE
P2*	Persistence of gastrointestinal symptoms in irritable bowel syndrome and ulcerative colitis: from risk factors to modification	P2 investigates whether somatic symptoms in patients with irritable bowel syndrome and ulcerative colitis are influenced by illness anxiety and symptom expectations and could therefore be improved by expectation management.	Professor Dr. Bernd Löwe, MD	Department of Psychosomatic Medicine and Psychotherapy, UKE
			Professor Dr. Ansgar W. Lohse, MD	I. Department of Medicine, UKE
P3	Predictors of somatic symptom persistence in patients with chronic kidney disease	P3 aims to identify multivariate predictors of PSS in patients with pre-dialysis chronic kidney disease (CKD) by testing biomedical, psychological, and treatment-related predictors using a mixed methods cohort study.	Professor Dr. Meike Shedden-Mora, PhD	Department of Psychosomatic Medicine and Psychotherapy, UKE; Department of Psychology, Medical School Hamburg
			Professor Dr. Tobias B. Huber, MD	III. Department of Medicine, UKE
P4	Biological and psychosocial factors affecting the persistence of pruritus symptoms	P4 examines the interplay of psychosocial and biological factors affecting the maintenance of pruritus in patients with atopic dermatitis, patients with pruritus on non-lesional skin and healthy controls.	Professor Dr. Stefan W. Schneider, MD	Department of Dermatology and Venerology, UKE
			Professor Dr. Sonja Ständer. MD	Department of Dermatology, University of Münster
			Professor Dr. Gudrun Schneider, MD	Department of Psychosomatic Medicine and Psychotherapy, University of Münster
P5*	Modifiable factors for somatic symptom persistence in patients with somatic symptom Disorder	P5 examines whether expectations about symptom severity and coping with symptoms determine symptom persistence in patients with somatic symptom disorder in interaction with somatic comorbidity and psychosocial factors.	Professor Dr. Yvonne Nestoriuc, PhD	Department of Clinical Psychology, Helmut-Schmidt University, Hamburg
			Dr. Anne Toussaint, PhD	Department of Psychosomatic Medicine and Psychotherapy, UKE
P6	Social inequalities in aggravating factors of persistent somatic symptoms	P6 examines whether socioeconomic and migration status are associated with risk factors for the persistence of irritable bowel syndrome and fatigue.	Professor Dr. Olaf von dem Knesebeck, PhD	Institute of Medical Sociology, UKE
Z-project*	Generic and disease-specific mechanisms of somatic symptom persistence across diseases	The Z-project will oversee the other projects with respect to adherence to the common methodology. The Z-project will pool data from the individual projects to identify networks of interacting symptoms and mechanisms of symptom persistence across projects and diseases.	Professor Dr. Antonia Zapf, PhD	Department of Medical Biometry and Epidemiology, UKE

*Co-applicants: P2: PD Dr. Viola Andresen, MD; Professor Dr. Yvonne Nestoriuc, PhD; P6 and Z-Project: Professor Dr. Bernd Löwe, MD; UKE, Universitätsklinikum Hamburg-Eppendorf (University Medical Centre Hamburg-Eppendorf, Hamburg, Germany).