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We congratulate Johan Bjureberg on receiving almost SEK 20 million from VR Behandlingsforskning for the study Preventing Suicide With Safe Alternatives for Teens and Youths (SAFETY): A Randomized Clinical Trial of a Psychosocial Intervention.
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The August Prize in the non-fiction category goes to Christian Rück, professor of psychiatry, for “Ett liv värt att leva. Varför självmord blev människans följeslagare” (A life worth living. Why suicide became man's companion). According to the jury, the book is written with ‘a liberating self-evidence’.
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Vaccination coverage for COVID-19 is high in both people with and without mental illness, according to a large multinational study led by researchers at Karolinska Institutet and published in Nature Communications. However, Swedish registry data revealed that individuals with unmedicated mental illness have lower vaccination levels.
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Girls with mental illness or neurodevelopmental conditions are less likely than their peers to be vaccinated with the HPV vaccine that protects against future cervical cancer. This is according to a new registry study from Karolinska Institutet published in The Lancet Public Health.
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A new study shows weak associations between psychiatric symptoms and selected inflammatory biomarkers in patients with chronic pain. The study found that sickness behavior contributed more to explaining psychiatric comorbidity.
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How do carers reason when deciding to treat patients with borderline personality disorder (BPD) under compulsory care? Is compulsory care ethically defensible? A new thesis by psychiatrist Antoinette Lundahl tries to answer these questions and concludes that there is much to indicate that compulsory care does not help patients with BPD and can even increase the risk of suicide.
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A comprehensive registry study from Karolinska Institutet shows that children of women who suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) right before or during pregnancy are almost twice as likely to be diagnosed with ADHD later in life. The study is published in the journal European Psychiatry.
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A recent study by researchers from Karolinska Institutet and Uppsala University has found that cognitive impairment varies significantly among individuals with newly diagnosed psychosis.
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Suicide is one of the leading causes of death in young persons in Sweden and globally. The last decades have seen an increasing proportion of the youth population engaging in university level education. The university period usually coincides with other important life events such as moving away from home. Early adulthood is furthermore a period when severe mental disorders, such as bipolar disorder and schizophrenia, may become symptomatic.
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Women who suffer depression during or after pregnancy have a higher risk of death by both natural and unnatural causes, a new study of childbirth in Sweden published in The BMJ reports. The increased risk peaks in the month after diagnosis but remains elevated for as long as 18 years afterwards.
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People in Sweden of non-European descent have almost three times as many eating disorder symptoms as people born in Sweden. But despite this, they have significantly less access to specialist treatment. This is according to new research from Karolinska Institutet published in BJPsych Open.
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Gambling addiction can increase the risk of long-term sick leave for several years, according to a new study published in Psychological Medicine. Researchers from Karolinska Institutet behind the study point to the need to detect people with gambling addiction in time to avoid financial and health problems.
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Sten Lundin set his apartment on fire and was convicted of arson. It turned out that he had bipolar disorder and the care he got helped him on feet again. "Life can sometimes turn around. I want everyone to know that", says Sten Lundin.
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She was deprived of liberty for over ten years. "I feel a great deal of sadness that it took so long before I received proper care", says Jenny.
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Who is at the highest risk of committing violent acts - and who is not? Forensic psychiatrist Jonas Forsman's researches involves an instrument that can, in a best case scenario, simplify the assessment of most forensic psychiatric patients.
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Anette Johansson conducts research on what separates psychotic people who commit crimes from psychotic people who do not.
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7.5 years That is the average treatment time for a person who has been sentenced to forensic psychiatric care. This is 2.5 years longer than what previous figures has lead us to believe.
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In 2022, roughly 350 people were sentenced to forensic psychiatric care. There is a unique borderland between the judicial system and healthcare, in which a person who has completed their medical treatment can be prevented from being discharged. At the same time, many patients are saying that they have benefited from the care. And fewer people relapse into crime after they have received forensic psychiatric care than they do after being imprisoned.
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New research from Karolinska Institutet published in JAMA Psychiatry shows how suicide attempts among people with depression is associated with higher mortality and impaired functionality.
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Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is a psychiatric diagnosis that affects about 5-10% of the population. PTSD occurs as a result of experiencing – or witnessing – severe, life-threatening and traumatic events, such as abuse, war, accidents and mistreatment.
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Bipolar disorder underlies roughly five percent of all suicides among young people. Previous studies also show that there is often a long delay between the onset of bipolarism and its correct diagnosis and treatment. Researchers at Karolinska Institutet now show that fewer boys commit suicide in Swedish regions where bipolar diagnoses are more common. The study, which is published in JAMA Psychiatry, could contribute to more proactive care for reducing the number of suicides.
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A Scandinavian collaboration led by KI researchers shows that of individuals treated in specialist care for major depressive disorder (MDD), many have a severe prognosis, for instance experiencing recurrence, developing other psychiatric disorders, requiring inpatient treatment, and some even dying by suicide. This research was based on 273,000 individuals with MDD in Sweden, Denmark, and Norway. The findings are published in Lancet Regional Health Europe.
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Medical sleep treatment may reduce self-harm in young people with anxiety and depression, an observational study from Karolinska Institutet suggests. The risk of self-harm increased in the months preceding melatonin prescription and decreased thereafter, especially in girls. The study is published in The Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry.
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Rumours spread faster than ever nowadays thanks to social media, and it is easy to get carried away. Some people are also inherently more vulnerable to conspiracy theories. However, sceptics’ concerns should be addressed, not dismissed, say researchers who are studying people’s willingness to take different kinds of vaccines.
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An online anonymous cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) treatment program for individuals with a sexual interest in children showed good results in an English language pilot study. Now the CBT program for crime prevention also opens in Swedish, German, and Portuguese. The treatment program, which has been developed by researchers and psychologists at Karolinska Institutet, will be evaluated within the framework of an international research collaboration funded by the EU.
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Beta blockers, which are widely used to treat heart conditions and high blood pressure, are associated with a lower risk of being charged with a violent crime, according to a new register-based study from Karolinska Institutet and the University of Oxford. The results have been published in PLOS Medicine.
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Problems with managing anger can have severe consequences for the afflicted individual and their loved ones. A new study from the Centre for Psychiatry Research at Karolinska Institutet shows that four weeks of therapy delivered over the internet can help people with anger and aggression. The results have been published in the Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology.
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The ADHD medication lisdexamfetamine was associated with the lowest risk of hospitalisation and death in people with amphetamine addiction, when medications generally used among persons with substance use disorders were compared. This is shown in a large registry-based study by researchers at Karolinska Institutet in Sweden in collaboration with the University of Eastern Finland and Niuvanniemi Hospital, published in JAMA Psychiatry.
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Autistic young men and women are more affected by psychiatric conditions and have an increased risk of being hospitalized as a result of their mental illness compared with non-autistic people. Autistic women are particularly vulnerable. This is shown by researchers from Karolinska Institutet in a study published in JAMA Psychiatry.
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Professor Mikael Landén was awarded the Swedish Society for Medical Research (SSMF) Jubilee Prize for his valuable findings within psychiatry research. This prestigious prize is SEK five million, intended for research. He will also be awarded a medal at the prize ceremony on 21 October.
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Deep grief has both mental and physical health consequences for the sufferer that can take decades to heal. People can even die of grief. It is therefore important to try to alleviate the effects of severe grief, something that we in Sweden aren’t particularly good at.
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Patient-initiated brief admission as a complement to outpatient psychiatric care is appreciated by nurses and patients, and can reduce levels of anxiety in people with emotional instability and self-harm, a new thesis from Karolinska Institutet reports.
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Researchers at Karolinska Institutet in Sweden might have found an explanation for why people with self-injury behaviour generally feel less pain than others. The key seems to be a more effective pain-modulation system, a discovery that can benefit people seeking help for their self-harm. The findings are published in the journal Molecular Psychiatry.
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Six predictors could help determine the amount of lithium needed to treat patients with bipolar disorder, according to a large study led by researchers at Karolinska Institutet in Sweden. The study, published in the journal The Lancet Psychiatry, also pinpoints genetic markers that seem to influence how quickly the body eliminates lithium from its system.
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Children with migration backgrounds in Sweden are less likely than other children to receive recommended treatment for psychiatric diagnoses such as ADHD and depression, a paper from Karolinska Institutet published in the journal Epidemiology and Psychiatric Sciences reports.
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Sexual and gender-based harassment in the workplace can contribute to the development of mental ill-health requiring treatment with antidepressants and anti-anxiety medication, a study from Karolinska Institutet in Sweden published in the journal Occupational and Environmental Medicine reports.
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What does it mean to admit yourself as a patient? Maria Smitmanis Lyle, a PhD student at the Department of Clinical Neuroscience and Coordinator at the Centre for Psychiatry Research, who researches self-admission for children and adolescents, explains.
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Use of assisted reproductive techniques (ART) does not lead to poorer mental health in children across adolescence and young adulthood, according to a large observational study led by researchers at Karolinska Institutet. The study, published in JAMA Psychiatry, found a slightly higher risk of obsessive-compulsive disorder for those born after ART but this was explained by parental background factors.
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It remains a central challenge in psychiatry to reliably judge whether a patient will respond to treatment. In a new study published in the journal Biological Psychiatry, researchers from Karolinska Institutet in Sweden and the Max Planck Institute for Human Development in Germany show that moment-to-moment fluctuations in brain activity can reliably predict whether patients with social anxiety disorder will be receptive to cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT).
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Patients with bipolar disorder who experience manic episodes are more likely to show abnormal brain changes over time, according to one of the largest longitudinal brain imaging studies in its field to date. The study, led by researchers at Karolinska Institutet and University of Gothenburg in Sweden, also confirms links between bipolar disorder and accelerated brain ventricle enlargement. The findings are published online in the journal Biological Psychiatry.
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Traumatic experiences such as assault or a road accident can give rise to nightmares, flashbacks and other mental reactions, and accessible therapy is needed to prevent exacerbation of the problems. Researchers at Karolinska Institutet have now completed what could be the largest evaluation to date of internet-delivered trauma-focused CBT (iCBT-T) for people who have recently experienced trauma. The study, which is published in Psychological Medicine, shows promising results.
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Adults with ADHD are at higher risk of a wide range of physical conditions, including nervous system, respiratory, musculoskeletal, and metabolic diseases, according to a large register-based study from Karolinska Institutet published in The Lancet Psychiatry.
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Social anxiety disorder can cause considerable suffering in children and adolescents and, for many with the disorder, access to effective treatment is limited. Researchers at Centre for Psychiatry Research at Karolinska Institutet and Region Stockholm have now shown that internet-delivered cognitive behavioural therapy is an efficacious and cost-effective treatment option. The study is published in the journal JAMA Psychiatry.
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Obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) in children and adolescents is associated with impaired education and worse general health later in life. Access to specialist treatment is often limited. According to a study from Centre for Psychiatry Research at Karolinska Institutet and Region Stockholm, internet-delivered cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) can be as effective as conventional CBT. The study, published in the prestigious journal JAMA, can help make treatment for OCD more widely accessible.
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Researchers at the Centre for Psychiatry Research at Karolinska Institutet have completed a large study evaluating a screening instrument for assessing the risk of suicide in connection with a visit to an emergency psychiatric clinic. The researchers found a link between screening score and suicide risk a short time after the emergency visit. The study is published in the journal Psychological Medicine.
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Individuals with high ADHD-traits that do not meet the criteria for a diagnosis are less able to perform tasks involving attentional regulation or emotional control after a sleepless night than individuals with low ADHD-traits, a new study from Karolinska Institutet published in Biological Psychiatry: Cognitive Neuroscience and Neuroimaging reports.
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Depressed children and teenagers have an increased risk of suffering from premature death and a wide range of illnesses later in life. That is according to a large observational study by researchers at Karolinska Institutet in Sweden. The findings highlight the need to look for other potential diseases following childhood or adolescent depression. Other psychiatric conditions, such as anxiety and substance misuse, can explain part of the association. The study is published in JAMA Psychiatry.
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It is a known fact that sexual minorities are at a higher risk of developing poor mental health, when compared to heterosexuals. The stigma that sexual minorities face has been regarded as potentially the primary cause of this. A new thesis from Karolinska Institutet offers an insight into how stigma-related factors may work in a broader socio-ecological system, considering the complex interaction between structural, interpersonal and individual factors.
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Liu Yang from the research group Translational Psychiatry, the Department of Molecular Medicine and Surgery, will defend her thesis "Exploring the Gut-brain Axis in Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD)" on December 4, 2020. Main Supervisor is Catharina Lavebratt.
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Worry about COVID-19 dominates some people’s lives in a way that has an impact on their health. A group of researchers at Karolinska Institutet in Sweden has developed a digital CBT programme that significantly reduced the participants’ unhelpful worry about the pandemic. The study is published in Psychotherapy and Psychosomatics and the programme is available through 1177 Vårdguiden.
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