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Critical illness and intensive care can affect patients and their families long after discharge from hospital. In her doctoral thesis at Karolinska Institutet, intensive care nurse Gisela Vogel has studied different strategies used to manage critical illness and care in an intensive care unit, from when the patient becomes critically ill until the return to everyday life.

Never before have so many people been displaced by war and poverty. Such change and loss can leave deep psychological scars. A new thesis by Doctor Maria Sundvall at Karolinska Institutet is based on surveys and interviews with asylum seekers and refugees in Sweden about their encounters with the psychiatric and primary care services. The results of her studies can make a significant contribution to the dialogue between migrants, clinics and authorities.

The evolutionary ability to identify sick individuals is crucial to reducing contagion and thereby improving chances of survival. Although most animals have this ability, whether humans have the same behavioural immune system has long been a subject of discussion. Researchers at Karolinska Institutet have now proven that hunter-gatherer groups can, with great certainty, identify the sick from Western Europe. The study was published in Proceedings of the Royal Society B.

More knowledge is needed about risk factors for recurrent cardiovascular disease and myocardial infarction. In his thesis, doctor Joel Ohm at the Department of Medicine, Solna, Karolinska Institutet, describes how socio-economic factors have a major impact on secondary prevention efforts and prognosis. The results may have an impact on people who have survived myocardial infarction.

Being socially active generally increases your chances of getting a good night’s sleep. But if you are active late into the evening, it reduces the number of hours you sleep – and can also affect your social life. This is according to a new study from Stockholm University and Karolinska Institutet published in the scientific journal PNAS.

Patricia Eustachio Colombo, doctoral student with the Department of Global Public Health at KI, is first author of the cross-sectional study based on data from the Swedish national dietary survey “Riksmaten ungdom” published in Public Health Nutrition.

Twelve researchers at Karolinska Institutet qualify for the annual list of highly cited researchers compiled by Web of Science.