Rücklab – Psychiatry research at Karolinska Institutet

On September 11, Olly Kravchenko successfully defended her doctoral thesis, Predicting health and socioeconomic outcomes in patients with common psychiatric disorders, at Karolinska Institutet. The thesis brings together Olly’s work on precision psychiatry, treatment outcome prediction, psychiatric genetics, and machine learning. 

The overarching aim of the thesis was to investigate whether health and socioeconomic outcomes following internet-delivered cognitive behavioural therapy (ICBT) could be predicted using information available before and during treatment. Across four studies, Olly worked with a uniquely rich combination of clinical and sociodemographic information, nationwide Swedish register data, treatment-course data, and genetic data. The research focused primarily on patients receiving ICBT for depression, panic disorder, and social anxiety disorder, with one genetic study also including patients treated for OCD. 

Overall, the thesis showed that treatment and socioeconomic outcomes could be predicted to a moderate and potentially useful degree. Information from national registers provided some additional predictive value beyond routinely collected clinical information, while polygenic scores consistently added little or no predictive value. Across the studies, some of the strongest signals came from patients’ accumulated history of psychiatric illness, functional difficulties, and socioeconomic circumstances. The work also highlighted that improvement in psychiatric symptoms and longer-term participation in working life are related but distinct aspects of recovery. 

One of the thesis studies developed and temporally validated machine-learning models to predict clinically meaningful improvement after ICBT. These models achieved moderate predictive performance and provide a foundation for future prospective validation before such tools could potentially be used to support clinical decision-making. 

Olly’s principal supervisor was Professor Christian Rück, with John Wallert and Ralf Kuja-Halkola as co-supervisors. Professor Joseph Hayes from University College London joined the defence as opponent. (Karolinska Institutet News) 

To mark the occasion, we asked Olly a few questions about her time as a PhD student at Rücklab and what comes next. 

What has been the most rewarding part of doing your PhD at Rücklab? 

The opportunity to work with a truly unique dataset: real psychiatric patients treated in routine clinical care, followed longitudinally, with several different types of data. The linkage to Swedish registers allowed me to learn both about the enormous research opportunities they provide and the intricacies of working with complex, large-scale register data. Having access to genetic data also gave me the chance to deepen my knowledge of psychiatric genetics, which I find absolutely fascinating. 

Which study, finding, or part of your PhD work are you most proud of, and why? 

Probably the study in which we developed prediction models for treatment outcome. I encountered far more methodological and data-related challenges than I had anticipated, and at times it felt as though there was no end to the tasks that needed solving. Working through them taught me an enormous amount and gave me a certain confidence that even an intimidating research project can be completed with enough persistence. 

What are you most looking forward to in the next step of your research career? 

More challenges. I am looking forward to starting with a new research question, contemplating how to operationalise it and developing a study design that is best suited to answering it. 

A huge congratulations to Olly on successfully completing her PhD — we look forward to seeing what comes next! 🎉 

Read Olly’s thesis in KI Open Archive 
DOI: 10.69622/32263065 

On 27-28 August, members of CAPRI came together for two inspiring and productive days focused on research, team-building activities and planning for the work ahead.

The programme included presentations from some of the CAPRI members:
– 𝗝𝗼𝗵𝗻 𝗪𝗮𝗹𝗹𝗲𝗿𝘁 – Is it possible to conduct an RCT with involuntary psychiatric inpatients?
– 𝗘𝗹𝗶𝗻 𝗦𝗸𝗼𝘁𝘁 – Widely implemented – incompletely proven?
– 𝗦𝗮𝗻𝗱𝗿𝗮 𝗧𝗮𝗺𝗺 – Conducting research in inpatient care – challenges and how to overcome them
– 𝗝𝗼𝗵𝗮𝗻 𝗕𝗷𝘂𝗿𝗲𝗯𝗲𝗿𝗴 – Who attempts, who dies? thinking about proxies in suicide research

We were also very pleased to welcome Professor 𝗛𝗲𝗹𝗲𝗻 𝗞𝗶𝗹𝗹𝗮𝘀𝗽𝘆, from University College London, who is a new member of CAPRI’s Scientific Advisory Board, who gave a keynote on how research can influence policy for our target group. Moreover, we also had the pleasure to listen to 𝗠𝗶𝗰𝗵𝗮𝗲𝗹 𝗜𝗼𝗮𝗻𝗻𝗼𝘂, who presented the Swedish Psychiatric Association’s ongoing work on guidelines for inpatient care.

Other highlights included a presentation by CAPRI’s Scientific Advisory Board, and another by 𝗩𝗶𝗰𝘁𝗼𝗿 𝗟𝗶𝗻𝗱𝗳𝗼𝗿𝘀, Head of SLSO’s new psychosis clinic, presenting the work he has been involved in with 𝗖𝗮𝗿𝗹 𝗦𝗲𝗹𝗹𝗴𝗿𝗲𝗻 and others to develop a new psychosis clinic.

Overall, the two days were both productive and enjoyable, giving us time to reflect on our work, develop new ideas and make concrete plans for moving forward together.

𝗔𝗯𝗼𝘂𝘁 𝗖𝗔𝗣𝗥𝗜:
Centre for Applied Psychiatric Research and Innovation (CAPRI) is a research centre at the Karolinska Institute focused on improving care for individuals with severe psychiatric conditions treated in high-intensity settings such as inpatient psychiatry, compulsory care, emergency psychiatry, and intensive outpatient programs. CAPRI works to co-develop, evaluate, and implement person-centred interventions together with patients, clinicians, relatives, and social services, with the aim of improving outcomes, reducing coercion and self-harm, strengthening recovery, and informing policy and clinical practice.

𝗖𝗵𝗿𝗶𝘀𝘁𝗶𝗮𝗻 𝗥𝘂𝗰𝗸 is the Director of CAPRI and the center is supported by a Scientific Advisory Board, consisting of 𝗟𝗼𝗿𝗲𝗻𝗮 𝗙𝗲𝗿𝗻𝗮𝗻𝗱𝗲𝘇 𝗱𝗲 𝗹𝗮 𝗖𝗿𝘂𝘇, 𝗣𝗮𝘂𝗹 𝗟𝗶𝗰𝗵𝘁𝗲𝗻𝘀𝘁𝗲𝗶𝗻, 𝗛𝗲𝗹𝗲𝗻 𝗞𝗶𝗹𝗹𝗮𝘀𝗽𝘆 and 𝗗𝗮𝘃𝗶𝗱 𝗠𝗮𝘁𝗮𝗶𝘅 𝗖𝗼𝗹𝘀. 𝗟𝗶𝘀𝗮 𝗚𝘂𝗻𝗻𝗮𝗿𝘀𝘀𝗼𝗻 is the Central Coordinator for CAPRI. Read more about CAPRI here: https://lnkd.in/dki9ZJmu

We are pleased to announce that Lisa Gunnarsson was been appointed PhD student in March, after two years as a Research Assistant in the Rücklab. Lisa holds an M.Sc. by Research in Psychiatry from Oxford University.

Her PhD project addresses two critical gaps in suicide research. First, her research evaluates Brief Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (BCBT) as a suicide-preventive intervention for patients in psychiatric inpatient care in Sweden, a group at exceptionally high risk of suicide following discharge. Second, she will investigate the validity of suicide classifications in the Swedish Cause of Death Register.

Her main supervisor is Christian Rück, and her co-supervisors are Fredrik Johansson and Lorena Fernández de la Cruz. We are very happy that she is continuing as part of our group! 🎉

August 19th, Olly nailed her thesis “Predicting health and socioeconomic outcomes in patients with common psychiatric disorders” in Flemingsberg. 

There was a great turnout from Rücklab group members.

We look forward to her disputation on September 11th!

Arbetar du inom psykiatrisk heldygnsvård eller bedriver forskning inom området? Är du beslutsfattare eller representerar en brukarorganisation? Då är du välkommen till en nationell hearing för att diskutera framtidens psykiatriska heldygnsvård den 20 oktober 2026. Vi hoppas att du vill delta och bidra med dina erfarenheter och perspektiv i diskussionen om framtidens heldygnsvård.

Vad: Nationell hearing om psykiatrisk heldygnsvård, arrangerad av CAPRI.
När: 20 oktober 2026, kl. 11.00–16.00.
Var: Stockholm (plats meddelas senare).
Arrangör: Dagen arrangeras av Centrum för tillämpad psykiatrisk forskning och innovation (CAPRI). CAPRI är ett forskningscentrum på Karolinska Institutet som arbetar för att stärka kunskapen om vård för personer med svåra psykiatriska tillstånd.

Beskrivning av hearingen
Syftet är att samla kliniker av alla professioner, forskare, beslutsfattare och brukarorganisationer för att identifiera de viktigaste kunskapsluckorna i heldygnsvården, samt diskutera vilken ny kunskap som kan förbättra vården. Hearingen är en del av CAPRIs arbete med att stärka vården för personer med svåra psykiatriska tillstånd genom att utveckla kunskap om psykiatrisk heldygnsvård och skapa ett underlag för framtida forskningsprioriteringar.

Anmäl dig genom att besvara följande enkät: https://lnkd.in/dyW6-y44
Om du föredrar att anmäla dig via e-post går det bra att mejla penny.taka@ki.se. Deltagandet är kostnadsfritt. Om du tidigare anmält intresse kommer vi höra av oss.

The latest publication from Rücklab is a new article first-authored by PhD student Olly Kravchenko, with Ralf Kuja-Halkola, Christian Rück, and John Wallert among the co-authors. The study was published in the Journal of Medical Internet Research.

The study investigated whether machine learning can help predict, before treatment begins, which patients are likely to experience clinically meaningful improvement from internet-delivered cognitive behavioural therapy (ICBT) for depression, panic disorder, and social anxiety disorder. Using data from 1,790 patients, the researchers combined clinical and sociodemographic information with data from national registers and genetics to develop and validate several predictive models.

Models incorporating register data performed better than a simpler model based on screening data alone, while genetic polygenic scores did not provide additional predictive value. The findings are a promising step towards tools that could help identify patients who may need more tailored support from the outset. The next step is prospective validation in new patients.

Congratulations to Olly and all co-authors!

Read the full article: https://www.jmir.org/2026/1/e100162

Hej!
Arbetar du inom psykiatrisk heldygnsvård, bedriver forskning inom området, är beslutsfattare eller representerar du en brukarorganisation?

Välkommen till en 𝗻𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻𝗲𝗹𝗹 𝗵𝗲𝗮𝗿𝗶𝗻𝗴 om svensk psykiatrisk heldygnsvård som anordnas den 𝟮𝟬 𝗼𝗸𝘁𝗼𝗯𝗲𝗿 𝟮𝟬𝟮𝟲. Detta är en save the date inför dagen, och vi hoppas att du vill delta och bidra med din kunskap och erfarenhet.

Vad? Nationell hearing om psykiatrisk heldygnsvård, arrangerad av CAPRI och Forte.

När? 20 oktober 2026, kl. 11.00–16.00.

Var? Stockholm (plats meddelas senare).

För vem? Kliniker av alla professioner, forskare, beslutsfattare och brukarorganisationer.

Arrangör: Dagen arrangeras av Centrum för tillämpad psykiatrisk forskning och innovation (CAPRI). CAPRI är ett forskningscentrum som arbetar för att stärka kunskapen om vård för personer med svåra psykiatriska tillstånd och utveckla insatser för högintensiva vårdmiljöer som heldygnsvård. Läs mer här: CAPRI. 

Beskrivning av hearingen

Syftet är att samla kliniker av alla professioner, forskare, beslutsfattare och brukarorganisationer för att identifiera de viktigaste utmaningarna i heldygnsvården, samt diskutera vilken ny kunskap som  kan förbättra vården.

Hearingen är en del av CAPRIs arbete med att stärka vården för personer med svåra psykiatriska tillstånd genom att utveckla kunskap om psykiatrisk heldygnsvård och skapa ett underlag för framtida forskningsprioriteringar. 

En formell inbjudan med program och praktisk information skickas ut i augusti. Vi hoppas att du har möjlighet att reservera dagen och ser fram emot att träffa dig i Stockholm den 20 oktober.

Här kan du lägga in din mail för att försäkra dig om att få inbjudan: Registrera din e-post för inbjudan här. Vid eventuella frågor, hör gärna av dig till Penny Taka på penny.taka@ki.se. 

Vänliga hälsningar,

Christian Rück