Role
Senior Lecturer at the School of Social Sciences
Career overview
Dr Kristy Themelis joined NTU Psychology as a Senior Lecturer in December 2023. Before that she worked as a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Warwick, School of Psychology, and at the University of Sussex, Brighton and Sussex Medical School. She completed her BSc in Physiotherapy in the Netherlands at Fontys Hogescholen, before moving to the UK to complete an MSc in Pain; Science and Society at King's College London followed by a PhD in Psychology at The University of Nottingham.
Research areas
Dr Themelis' research explores the intricate relationship between biopsychosocial factors and the development and persistence of chronic pain, its co-occurrence with mental health comorbidities, and suicide risk.
Dr Themelis is interested in supervising PhD students in any of the above areas.
External activity
Ad hoc reviewer for various journals including BMJ open, Journal of Education, Society and Behavioural Science, Journal of Clinical Medicine, Global Qualitative Nursing Research
Sponsors and collaborators
Current collaborators:
- Dr Roger Newport (Loughborough University, UK)
- Prof Nicole Tang (University of Warwick, UK)
- Dr Martin Cheatle (University of Pennsylvania, US)
- Dr Jessica Eccles (Brighton and Sussex Medical School, UK)
- Dr Lisa Quadt (Brighton and Sussex Medical School, UK)
Publications
Themelis, K., Gillett, J.L., Karadag, P., Cheatle, M.D., Ilgen, M.A., Balasubramanian, S., Singh, S.P. and Tang, N.K.Y. (2025), Mental Defeat Predicts Increased Suicide Risk in Chronic Pain: A 12-Month Prospective Study. Eur J Pain, 29: e4779. https://doi.org/10.1002/ejp.4779
Gillett JL, Rakhimov A, Karadag P, Themelis K, Ji C, Tang NK. Self-compassion in chronic pain: Validating the self-compassion scale short-form and exploring initial relationships with pain outcomes. British Journal of Pain. 2025;0(0). https://doi.org/10.1177/20494637241312070
Themelis K, Tang NKY. The Management of Chronic Pain: Re-Centring Person-Centred Care. Journal of Clinical Medicine. 2023; 12(22):6957. https://doi.org/10.3390/jcm12226957
Themelis K, Gillett JL, Karadag P, Cheatle MD, Giordano NA, Balasubramanian S, Singh SP, Tang NK. Mental Defeat and Suicidality in Chronic Pain: A Prospective Analysis. J Pain. 2023 Nov;24(11):2079-2092. doi: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jpain.2023.06.017. Epub 2023 Jun 29. PMID: 37392929.
Cheatle MD, Giordano NA, Themelis K, Tang NKY. Suicidal thoughts and behaviors in patients with chronic pain, with and without co-occurring opioid use disorder. Pain Med. 2023 Aug 1;24(8):941-948. doi: https://doi.org/10.1093/pm/pnad043. PMID: 37014415; PMCID: PMC10391589.
Gillett JL, Karadag P, Themelis K, et al. Investigating mental defeat in individuals with chronic pain: Protocol for a longitudinal experience sampling study. BMJ Open 2023;13:e066577. doi: https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2022-066577
Csecs JLL, Iodice V, Rae CL, Brooke A, Simmons R, Quadt L, Savage GK, Dowell NG, Prowse F, Themelis K, Mathias CJ, Critchley HD, Eccles JA. Joint Hypermobility Links Neurodivergence to Dysautonomia and Pain. Front Psychiatry. 2022 Feb 2;12:786916. doi: https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyt.2021.786916. PMID: 35185636; PMCID: PMC8847158.
C Collard, V.E.J., Gillett, J.L., Themelis, K. et al. An exploratory investigation into the effects of mental defeat on pain threshold, pain rating, pain anticipation, and mood. Curr Psychol 42, 1738–1749 (2023). Epub 2021. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12144-021-01548-3
Themelis K, Ratcliffe N, Nishigami T, Wand BM, Newport R, Stanton TR. The effect of visually manipulating back size and morphology on back perception, body ownership, and attitudes towards self-capacity during a lifting task. Psychol Res. 2022 Sep;86(6):1816-1829. doi: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00426-021-01609-z. Epub 2021 Nov 2. PMID: 34727227;PMCID: PMC9363286.
Eccles JA, Thompson B, Themelis K, Amato ML, Stocks R, Pound A, Jones AM, Cipinova Z, Shah-Goodwin L, Timeyin J, Thompson CR, Batty T, Harrison NA, Critchley HD, Davies KA. Beyond bones: The relevance of variants of connective tissue (hypermobility) to fibromyalgia, ME/CFS and controversies surrounding diagnostic classification: an observational study. Clin Med (Lond). 2021 Jan;21(1):53-58. doi: https://doi.org/10.7861/clinmed.2020-0743. PMID: 33479068; PMCID: PMC7850199.
Moayedi M, Noroozbahari N, Hadjis G, Themelis K, Salomons TV, Newport R, S Lewis J. The structural and functional connectivity neural underpinnings of body image. Hum Brain Mapp. 2021 Aug 1;42(11):3608-3619. doi: https://doi.org/10.1002/hbm.25457. Epub 2021 May 7. PMID: 33960581; PMCID: PMC8249883.
Nishigami T, Wand BM, Newport R, Ratcliffe N, Themelis K, Moen D, Jones C, Moseley GL, Stanton TR. Embodying the illusion of a strong, fit back in people with chronic low back pain. A pilot proof-of-concept study. Musculoskelet Sci Pract. 2019 Feb;39:178-183. doi: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.msksp.2018.07.002. Epub 2018 Jul 23. PMID: 30049618.
Themelis K, Newport R. An investigation of contextual factors in the application of multisensory illusions for analgesia in hand osteoarthritis. Rheumatol Adv Pract. 2018 Jul 21;2(2):rky019. doi: https://doi.org/10.1093/rap/rky019. PMID: 31431966; PMCID: PMC6649980.
Greenfield K, Ropar D, Themelis K, Ratcliffe N, Newport R. Developmental Changes in Sensitivity to Spatial and Temporal Properties of Sensory Integration Underlying Body Representation. Multisens Res. 2017 Jan 1;30(6):467-484. doi: https://doi.org/10.1163/22134808-00002591. PMID: 31287088.
Newport R, Auty K, Carey M, Greenfield K, Howard EM, Ratcliffe N, Thair H, Themelis K. Give It a Tug and Feel It Grow: Extending Body Perception Through the Universal Nature of Illusory Finger Stretching. Iperception. 2015 Oct 19;6(5):2041669515599310. doi: https://doi.org/10.1177/2041669515599310. PMID: 27648214; PMCID: PMC5016819.