Category: News

Are you reading this from a hammock, or perhaps muttering to yourself in uncomfortable summer traffic on your way to work? Either way, we have a recommendation to enhance your summer relaxation or commute.

We suggest tuning into the A-Kursen podcast with hosts Emma Frans and Clara Wallin. In this special episode, they are joined by our very own Christian Rück, along with other fascinating guests: Dr. Caroline Uggla, an expert in evolutionary anthropology, and Erik Angner, an economist and philosopher. Together, they delve into the profound topic, “What is the meaning of life?”

A related summer recommendation: Christian’s book Ett liv värt att leva came out earlier this year. It delves into the complex and often troubling subject of suicide, examining its nuances and the profound questions it raises about life and death.

Our research group is thrilled to announce even more grants that will support our ongoing and future projects. These funds will enable the exploration of innovative treatments and interventions in psychiatric care, as well as contribute to the understanding and improvement of mental health outcomes.

Volen Ivanov: In-home decluttering+CBT for hoarding disorder

Project Name: A randomized controlled trial and process evaluation of in-home decluttering augmentation of group cognitive-behavioral therapy for hoarding disorder.
Grant Amount from ALF: 600 000 SEK

Philip Brenner: Mapping Psychological Treatments

Project Name: The Swedish Psychiatric Outpatient Register Study (SPROut)
Grant Amount from ALF: 600.000 SEK

Maria Bragesjö: Intensive Trauma-Focused CBT for PTSD

Project Name: Intensive Trauma-Focused CBT Compared to Usual Weekly Treatment for Adults with Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder: A Randomised Controlled Trial

John Wallert: Risk Calculator for Psychiatric Care Outcomes

Project Name: A Population-Based Risk Calculator for Adverse Outcomes After Discharge from Involuntary Psychiatric Care
Grant Amount from ALF: 1.1 MKR

Lina Martinsson: Physical Exercise as Add-On Treatment

Project Name: Braining: Physical Exercise as Add-On Treatment in Psychiatric Care
Grant Amount from ALF: 1 MKR

Christian Rück: Improving suicide prediction and prevention

Project Name: Saving lives: building a total nationwide multimodal suicide cohort to improve precision in prediction and prevention of suicide
Grant Amount from ALF: 1,9 MKR

Elin Lindsäter: Fatigue as a trans diagnostic symtom dimension

Project Name: Fatigue as a transdiagnostic symptom dimension – Novel approaches to assessment and treatment in primary healthcare
Grant: AFA Insurance and Alecta via their call “The Path to Mental Health in Working Life”
Grant Amount: 2.2 MKR
More Information: New Grant for KI Researcher on Mental Health in the Workplace

We are pleased to announce that three projects have been awarded funding from The Center for Innovative Medicine (CIMED): This support includes project grants for Christian Rück and John Wallert have received project grants and Volen Ivanov has been awarded clinical research months (3 research months per year in three years).

These are the projects

Volen Ivanov – Solving the hypochondriasis paradox: Towards a better integration of somatic and psychiatric care for individuals with health anxiety.

John Wallert – A population-based risk calculator for adverse outcomes after discharge from involuntary psychiatric care.

Christian Rück – Saving lives: building a total nationwide multimodal suicide cohort to improve precision in prediction and prevention of suicide.

We congratulate our researchers on their well-deserved funding and look forward to the work that will result from these projects.

Physical activity benefits both physical and mental health. But how exactly does exercise aid in alleviating depression, anxiety, and stress? This is the question Lina Martinsson answers in the latest episode of KI’s podcast Medicinvetarna: Lyssnarfrågan.

– Among other things, exercise leads to increased activity and blood flow in the brain, as well as increased release of certain substances associated with the positive effects of depression treatment, such as dopamine, noradrenaline and serotonin and a substance called bdnf, brain derived neurotrophic factor, which supports other cells in the brain, she says.

She advises engaging in enjoyable and sustainable forms of exercise. To promote physical activity among psychiatric patients, Dr. Martinsson and her colleagues have developed an initiative called “Braining” (training for the brain).

For a deeper dive into this topic, listen to episode #10 of KI’s popular science podcast, Medicinvetarna.

You can read more about the Braining project at their awesome website www.braining.nu.

We are looking for two research assistants to perform blinded clinical assessments with study participants in our projects on Obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) chronic tics.

We are seeking two part-time research assistants for approximately 2 hours per week from August 2024 for one year.

Your Role (Swedish-speaking):

• Conduct clinical assessments with project participants via video calls.
• Work remotely from anywhere in Sweden, with occasional on-site work at Huddinge Hospital in Region Stockholm for training and quarterly team meetings.
• Ensure quick direct communication and supervision with the research team during remote assessments.

Apply by 13 June.

The article is called ”Deep learning-based dimensional emotion recognition for conversational agent-based cognitive behavioral therapy” and is part of an ongoing collaboration between state-funded AI lab SCADS.AI in Germany and our own Modelling Team led by John Wallert. 

Link to preprint on ResearchGate.

We want to highlight Sim Jamil who recently presented her Individual Study Plan (ISP) during a seminar, unveiling her doctoral project aimed at transforming PTSD treatment.

The project, which compares intensive exposure-based treatment with the standard weekly delivered prolonged exposure for PTSD. This research will assess the treatments’ efficacy, speed of response, and dropout rates through a pilot study, a randomized controlled trial, a cost-effectiveness analysis, and an investigation into treatment effect moderators. The intensive treatment holds the potential to accelerate patient recovery, reduce healthcare wait times, and optimize clinical resource allocation.

Sim is guided by Maria Bargesjö as the main supervisor and Christian Rück as the co-supervisor.

Stay tuned for updates on progress and findings ⚙️⚙️⚙️

Diana has been awarded 150 000 SEK from Innovationsfonden!

The project involves the development of a structured progressive sampling routine in psychiatric outpatient and inpatient care.

Congratulations 🎉

In the Swedish popular science magazine Forskning och Framsteg, Christian provides a historical review of animal suicid research. The question of whether animals commit suicide has long interested scientists, not least because it is an anomaly in the evolutionary principle of survival. However, it appears that suicide may be a phenomenon rooted in human comprehension of concepts like meaning and purposelessness, a kind of byproduct of higher cognitive abilities. Simultaneously, humans possess the resilience and capability to endure hardships and persist through challenges.

Read the article here (in Swedish).

Today, Seena Fazel, world-leading researcher in suicide prediction, from Oxford University held an intriguing seminar on risk assessment models for suicide. In the seminar, he talked about the OxSATS risk predictor model for suicide. The OxSATS is a part of OxRisk, a project by the Forensic Psychiatry and Psychology group at the University of Oxford that has developed a number of web-based risk calculators. The risk calculators are supposed to complement clinical decision-making.

Check out the OxRisk project here.

And read more about Seena Fazel and his research here.