In 1998 she earned a PhD at the Faculty of Psychology, University of Bergen, with the thesis ”Stress and coping: Does it really matter for subjective health complaints?”[4]
Eriksen published in international academic journals on stress and coping, subjective health complaints, sick leave and rehabilitation.[5] Together with colleague Holger Ursin she developed the Cognitive Activation Theory of Stress (CATS)[6][7][8][9]
^Eriksen, Hege R. (1992). Fysisk trening og epilepsi : virkningen av regelmessig fysisk trening på anfallsfrekvens hos en gruppe medikamentavhengige kvinner med epilepsi [Physical exercise and Epilepsy]. Cand. Scient. Thesis. Oslo: Norges idrettshøgskole
^Eriksen, Hege R. (1998). Stress and coping : does it really matter for subjective health complaints? Doctoral thesis. Department of Biological and Medical Psychology, Division of Physiological Psychology, Faculty of Psychology, University of Bergen
^Eriksen HR, Murison R, Pensgaard AM, Ursin H (November 2005). "Cognitive activation theory of stress (CATS): from fish brains to the Olympics". Psychoneuroendocrinology. 30 (10): 933–8. doi:10.1016/j.psyneuen.2005.04.013. PMID15964143. S2CID26626647.
^Eriksen HR, Ursin H (April 2004). "Subjective health complaints, sensitization, and sustained cognitive activation (stress)". Journal of Psychosomatic Research. 56 (4): 445–8. doi:10.1016/S0022-3999(03)00629-9. PMID15094030.
^Arnetz, Bengt B (November 2005). "Subjective indicators as a gauge for improving organizational well-being. An attempt to apply the cognitive activation theory to organizations". Psychoneuroendocrinology. 30 (10): 1022–26. doi:10.1016/j.psyneuen.2005.03.016. PMID15955637. S2CID27515679.