Elfi Vergaelen

Dr. Elfi Vergaelen is an adult psychiatrist specialized in psychosomatic symptoms and intellectual disability. She obtained her MD and completed her medical specialty training at the University of Leuven. Dr. Elfi Vergaelen completed her PhD thesis "Bridging brain and body in 22q11" in 2019. In this research she focused on a possible role for the immune system in psychiatric disorders in 22q11.

Currently, she works at the University Psychiatric Center KU Leuven in Leuven, Belgium. In her clinical work she focuses on the multidisciplinary treatment of functional disorders and somatic symptom disorders. In addition she follows up adults with 22q11.2 deletion syndrome in collaboration with the center for human genetics at the university hospital Leuven. As part of her research, she is interested in the interaction between the brain and the body. She concentrates on the role of the immune system and the stress system in psychological symptoms as well as unexplained physical symptoms in adults.