Erik Pettersson

Erik Pettersson

Principal Researcher | Docent
Visiting address: Nobels väg 12A, 17165 Solna
Postal address: C8 Medicinsk epidemiologi och biostatistik, C8 MEB I Pettersson, 171 77 Stockholm
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About me

  • I am an associate professor in epidemiology.

    Education:
    BA Psychology, Harriet L. Wilkes Honors College of Florida Atlantic
    University (2004)
    MA Psychology, College of William and Mary (2006)
    PhD Psychology, University of Virginia (2012)

    Current research grants (as PI):
    Swedish Research Council
    FORTE

Research

  • I study why individuals who receive one psychiatric diagnosis are more likely to receive all other psychiatric diagnoses (i.e., comorbidity). One hypothesis is that it might be beneficial to measure this comorbidity via a so-called general factor of psychopathology, which would allow for measuring both general as well as specific mental health problems. I also investigate the intergenerational transmission of mental health problems. To address these issues, we apply multivariate behavior genetic and quasi-causal methods to the Swedish population-based health registers and the Swedish Twin Register.

    Current doctoral students:
    Mengping Zhou (supervisor)
    Astrid Moell (co-supervisor)

    Postdoc:
    Yangjun Liu

    Selected publications:
    Opportunities of measuring hierarchical models of psychopathology
    Pettersson, E
    JCPP Advances
    https://acamh.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/jcv2.12187#:~:text=Advantages%20of%20hierarchical%20models%2C%20which, to%20discriminate%20between%20individuals%20with

    Associations Between General and Specific Psychopathology Factors and 10-Year Clinically Relevant Outcomes in Adult Swedish Twins and Siblings.
    Pettersson E, Larsson H, D'Onofrio BM, Lichtenstein P.
    JAMA Psychiatry. 2023 May 10:e231162.
    https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/37163290/

    The general factor of psychopathology: a comparison with the general factor of intelligence with respect to magnitude and predictive validity.
    Pettersson E, Larsson H, D'Onofrio BM, Bölte S, Lichtenstein P
    World Psychiatry 2020 Jun
  • 19(2):206-213
    https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/32394574/

    Common psychiatric disorders share the same genetic origin: a multivariate sibling study of the Swedish population.
    Pettersson E, Larsson H, Lichtenstein P
    Mol Psychiatry 2016 May
  • 21(5):717-21
    https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/26303662/

Teaching

  • 2013-2020 Course director "Introduction to Behavior Genetics" (4, 5HP) at clinical psychology program at Karolinska Institutet, Sweden
    2017-2020 Coordinator (considered equal in responsibility to a course director) at Medical degree program at Karolinska Institutet, Sweden
    2012 Course director "Personality and Psychopathology" at the University of Virginia

Articles

All other publications

Grants

Employments

  • Principal Researcher, Department of Medical Epidemiology and Biostatistics, Karolinska Institutet, 2022-

Degrees and Education

  • Docent, Karolinska Institutet, 2021

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