News

PhD position in Precision Psychiatry available

We are looking for a new doctoral student to join our computational team!

Read more and apply here.

Do you want to contribute to top quality medical research?

In the research group we work to improve the lives of individuals with psychiatric conditions. A core theme of our research is to develop more accurate prediction models for both the risk of, and also consequences of, psychiatric conditions.

The main scientific objective of your PhD project is to advance knowledge in suicide prediction. Suicide is a catastrophic event for the individual, close relatives, colleagues, and society. Your project is focused on statistical modelling in two different studies. In both studies you will collaborate with colleagues at Oxford University (UK), University of North Carolina Chapel Hill (US) and Sweden.

🎯Research project 1 is a registry study of risk factors for suicide among psychiatric patients that have experienced compulsive mental care.

🎯Research project 2 you will be working with multimodal data (including genetic data) in a nationwide suicide cohort with the purpose of improving present prediction of suicide aiming to derive and validate better risk models for suicide in the total population.

The position is a part of the Rücklab computational team, led by John Wallert.

We look forward to receiving your application!

News

New article on the feasibility of digital acceptance based BT for trichotillomania and skin-picking

Mia Asplund et al have looked into the feasibility of internet-delivered acceptance based behavioral therapy (BT) for trichotillomania (TTM) and skin-picking disorder (SPD).

Click here to read the article.

Short summary:

25 clinical-referred patients with TTM and SPD underwent internet-delivered BT for 10 weeks. The treatment involved both traditional interventions such as habit reversal and more acceptance based strategies.

A majority of the participants were satisfied with the treatment and found it credible. Hair pulling and skin picking severity decreased significantly from pretreatment to posttreatment, and most outcome measures remained significant at the 12-month follow-up.

Taken together, he results provide initial evidence suggesting that I-BT could be a feasible, acceptable and potentially effective treatment for TTM and SPD.

👏👏👏👏

News

Registration open for study on internet-delivered prolonged exposure for PTSD

The registration is now open for our study investigating the feasibility of internet-delivered prolonged exposure for patients with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).

Click here if you are interested in participating in the study, receiving internet-delivered psychological treatment for PTSD (Swedish)

Psychological treatments, commonly using trauma focused cognitive-behavioral techniques, like prolonged exposure (PE) are today recommended as first-line treatments for PTSD. Unfortunately, this treatment is not available to everyone who needs it. Therefore, we are investigating the feasibility of internet-delivered prolonged exposure for patients with PTSD.

Primal investigator of the project is Maria Bragesjö.

News

Anmälan till studie om hälsoångest

Oroar du dig väldigt mycket över din hälsa?

Vill du på egen hand jobba med ett digitalt verktyg för att hitta sätt att hantera den här oron?

Karolinska Institutet undersöker just nu om ett digitalt egenvårdsprogram kan hjälpa personer som besväras av hälsoångest. 

Med hälsoångest menas: 

  • En stark och ihållande rädsla för att vara eller bli allvarligt sjuk
  • Rädslan är överdriven i förhållande till den verkliga risken och medför stort lidande eller begräsning i vardagen
  • Rädslan leder till olika strategier såsom att söka information om sjukdomar, kontroll av kroppen eller undvikanden av aktiviteter.

Studien pågår under 8 veckor och sker helt via dator/smartphone. Deltagare över 18 år från hela landet är välkomna att anmäla sig.

Läs mer / gör intresseanmälan på: https://egenvard.webcbt.se/registration/16644

Kontakt:
Projektledare: Susanna Österman, leg psykolog och doktorand
susanna.osterman@ki.se, 0708842418

Ansvarig forskare: Martin Kraepelien, leg psykolog och med dr. 
martin.kraepelien@rucklab

English translation: We are now including participants for a study testing a digital self-care program for people suffering from health anxiety. Project manager is Susanna Österman, PhD student in our research group.

News

New publication from the statistical modelling team!

The article Predicting remission after internet-delivered psychotherapy in patients with depression using machine learning and multi-modal data is now published in Translational Psychiatry and ready to be read and spread.  

The study applied supervised machine learning with multi-modal data to predict remission of major depressive disorder after internet-delivered psychotherapy. Predictor types were demographic, clinical, process, and genetic and outcome was remission status post ICBT. Transparency analysis showed model usage of all predictor types at both the group and individual patient level. Future iterations of the derived and validated model may inform tailored intervention before initiating ICBT for MDD. The multi-modal approach to predict remission in these patients holds promise and warrants further investigation to establish clinical utility.

The authors are John Wallert, Julia Boberg, Viktor Kaldo, David Mataix-Cols, Oskar Flygare, James Crowley, Matthew Halvorsen, Fehmi Ben Abdesslem, Magnus Boman, Evelyn Andersson, Nils Hentati Isacsson, Ekaterina Ivanova and Christian Rück.

Read the article here.

News

Internetbehandling mot tvångsmässigt hudplockande (dermatillomani)

Edit: Anmälan är stängd på grund av ett stort antal anmälningar på kort tid/The registration is closed due to a large number of applicants.

Nu drar Rücklab igång rekryteringen till en kontrollerad studie där vi testar effekten av internetförmedlad KBT för dermatillomani jämfört med väntelista. Behandlingen, som är kostnadsfri, pågår under 10 veckor och sker på distans via en säker internetplattform. Kontakt med behandlare sker via textmeddelanden.

Alla som deltar i studien erbjuds behandling. Man måste vara minst 18 år för att delta och boende i Sverige.

Kontakta gärna projektledande psykolog Mia Asplund om du har frågor kring studien! E-post: mia.asplund@ki.se

Vad är dermatillomani?

Dermatillomani eller skin-picking disorder som det kallas på engelska, innebär ett överdrivet plockande, pillande eller klämmande på huden. Ofta plockar man i ansiktet, på armar och händer, men många plockar även hud från andra ställen på kroppen. Det vanligaste är att man söker efter ojämnheter som pormaskar, finnar, hudflikar, förhårdnader, sår eller sårskorpor från tidigare rivande

Hudplockandet kan triggas av ett inre sug, och för vissa leda till en känsla av lättnad eller tillfredställelse. Andras plockande triggas av rastlöshet eller jobbiga känslor som stress och oro och upplever att plockandet hjälper till att lindra dessa negativa känslor.

English translation: The registration is now open for a controlled study testing internet-delivered CBT for dermatillomania (also known as skin-picking disorder). Contact psychologist and project manager Mia Asplund if you have questions about the study. Edit: The registration is now closed.

News

New article accepted for publication in Translational Psychiatry

A new article just got accepted for publication in the Translational Psychiatry.

Predicting remission after internet-delivered psychotherapy in patients with depression using machine learning and multi-modal data

Authors: John Wallert, Julia Boberg, Viktor Kaldo, David Mataix-Cols, Oskar Flygare, James Crowley, Matthew Halvorsen, Fehmi Ben Abdesslem, Magnus Boman, Evelyn Andersson, Nils Hentati Isacsson, Ekaterina Ivanova and Christian Rück.

Interesting reading ahead!

News

Science, Samba & Soccer: our visit to São Paulo in August 2022

Last week, Oskar Flygare, Volen Ivanov and Christian Rück visited our collaborators in São Paulo, Brazil to work on current projects and discuss new ones. This was the third meeting in person between the two collaborating groups, the previous ones being Alice de Mathis’ visit to Stockholm and a visit by Oskar and Christian to São Paulo in 2019. The OCD research group at São Paulo is led by professor Euripedes Constantino Miguel and our visits always involve a rich exchange of ideas relating to our research.

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One ongoing research project is a pilot study of an internet-delivered treatment for obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD-NET) which has been translated to Portuguese and is now being evaluated in Brazil. After a brief suspension due to the pandemic, the project is now well underway with ongoing recruitment and treatment of patients. So far the feedback from both therapists and patients has been encouraging. In addition to discussing the ongoing project, Oskar presented results and lessons learned from two recent clinical trials on OCD-NET in Sweden and England.

Volen shared his knowledge about hoarding disorder, from research projects and clinical work. Expertise in diagnosing and treating hoarding disorder is sorely lacking in Brazil, and our colleagues were eager to learn as much as possible in order to provide effective care. Interestingly, just months before our visit a podcast about an individual with likely hoarding disorder in São Paulo has stoked public interest and increased awareness about the condition. It is clear that our research groups have plenty of opportunities for collaboration on projects related to hoarding.

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The visit was also an opportunity to plan an upcoming project led by Arthur Caye that will evaluate internet-delivered treatments for OCD, depression, insomnia and anxiety in two municipalities outside of São Paulo: Jaguariúna and Indaiatuba. The access to psychotherapy in these cities is limited and the project is an opportunity to increase access to effective treatments for common disorders. The project will evaluate the feasibility of using internet-delivered treatments in primary care, where most of the patients with mental disorders are seen.

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We were once again moved by the hospitality and warmth our hosts showed us. There was a rich social programme outside the work activities and we had the opportunity to enjoy samba with Daniel Costa, soccer with Rodolfo Furlan Damiano and several restaurants together with our Brazilian colleagues Nil Morales, Sonia Borcato and Roseli Shavitt. Thanks to their generosity with their time, we got a true taste of Brazilian culture!

News

Introducing Max Sannemalm and the Bergen 4-Day Treatment for OCD

Sunny midsummer was great, but we are even happier that Max Sannemalm just joined our group!

Max is a licensed psychologist and will be joining us as the project coordinator for the randomized controlled non-inferiority trial study comparing the Bergen 4-Day Treatment (B4DT) to gold-standard CBT for OCD.

The Bergen 4-Day Treatment (B4DT) is a new concentrated treatment for OCD developed by Gerd Kvale and Bjarne Hansen from Bergen. In B4DT, patients receive ERP at a clinic during 4 consecutive days. The B4DT has shown to achieve remission in around 70% of patients when delivered in regular care in several uncontrolled treatment trials, and one randomized controlled trial (RCT) including a self-help group and a waitlist group. However, it has yet to be directly compared to gold-standard CBT.

The study will test the non-inferiority, speed of recovery, and cost-effectiveness of B4DT, compared to gold-standard.

To summarize: Exciting things ahead, and welcome to the group, Max!

News

Two new research assistants needed

Interested in psychiatry research? Want to join the group? We are hiring not one but TWO new research assistants!

The group is certainly expanding. Team leader John Wallert just advanced to Assistant Professor within the group, congratulations! 🎯

We are also hiring two new research assistants for two slightly different employments.

One is for The Joining Forces RCT crew, working with Volen Ivanov and Sofia Jägholm. In this job you will do different tasks related to their RCT on a new combination treatment for hoarding disorder, including screening interviews and home visits with hoarding patients, interviews with housing supporters and managers in the social services and monitoring of data collection as well contact with the project’s various collaboration partners. Read more and apply here. Last day to apply is July 31.

The other one is for John Wallert’s interdisciplinary modeling team, an employment in a project in precision psychiatry. This employment includes assisting John and three others with tasks such as database work, archiving of completed projects, meeting documentation and planning, create and then support a structure for work in the steering group for one of our larger projects and write research information texts. Read more and apply here. Last day to apply is July 31.