About me
CURRENT POSITION
18.04.01.- ongoing Section head of Continuing Professional Development, Centre for Psychiatry Research (CPF), Department of Clinical Neuroscience, Karolinska Institutet & Stockholms Läns Sjukvårdsområde (SLSO).
21.03.09. Docent in Psychology at the Department of Clinical Neuroscience, Karolinska Institutet.
Research description
My research has during my whole career been focused on different aspects of psychosis and Schizophrenia, and more specific cognitive functions and Schizophrenia. After my dissertation in 2009 I got a post doc position with focus on cognition and schizophrenia at the Centre for Psychiatry Research at Karolinska Institutet. Post doc mentors were ass. prof. Lena Flyckt and prof. Lars Farde. This position was in a new project called Karolinska Schizophrenia Project (KaSP). Several groups working with schizophrenia research at Karolinska Institutet started to collaborate and the overall aim was to examine if brain immune activation is associated with the pathophysiology in schizophrenia. More specific the project enrolls first episode psychosis patients that were either antipsychotic drug naïve or sparingly medicated for less than one month. They undergo an ambitious project of examinations at baseline and at 1,5 year follow up. I am responsible for the cognitive database.
Up to today we have enrolled 100 patients and 65 controls at baseline and approximately half of them have done their 1.5 year follow up. The project is still ongoing and the plan is to continue collecting data for many years. It has resulted in numerous publications in high impact journals and highlights a multidisciplinary and translational strategy aimed at examining the pathophysiology of schizophrenia involving both clinical and pre-clinical researchers. I am responsible for the cognitive database and currently working with analyses of these data. For more information about the KaSP project see: https://ki.se/en/research/the-karolinska-schizophrenia-project-kasp?_ga=2.192792680.350689484.1540983977-24002046.1535100567
Following are some of the most important publications that the KaSP project has resulted in, and many other publications are in pipeline:
1. Lower levels of the glial cell marker TSPO in drug-naive first-episode psychosis patients as measured using PET and [11C]PBR28. Collste K, Plavén-Sigray P, Fatouros-Bergman H, Victorsson P, Schain M, Forsberg A, Amini N, Aeinehband S; Karolinska Schizophrenia Project (KaSP) consortium, Erhardt S, Halldin C, Flyckt L, Farde L, Cervenka S. Mol Psychiatry. 2017 Jun;22(6):850-856. doi: 10.1038/mp.2016.247. PMID: 28194003 Impact Factor: 11.640 https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/28194003
2. CSF GABA is reduced in first-episode psychosis and associates to symptom severity. Orhan F, Fatouros-Bergman H, Goiny M, Malmqvist A, Piehl F; Karolinska Schizophrenia Project (KaSP) Consortium, Cervenka S, Collste K, Victorsson P, Sellgren CM, Flyckt L, Erhardt S, Engberg G. Mol Psychiatry. 2017 Mar 14. doi: 10.1038/mp.2017.25. PMID: 28289277 Impact Factor: 11.640 https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/28289277
3. Cerebellar volume and cerebellocerebral structural covariance in schizophrenia: a multisite mega-analysis of 983 patients and 1349 healthy controls. Moberget T, Doan NT, Alnæs D, Kaufmann T, Córdova-Palomera A, Lagerberg TV, Diedrichsen J, Schwarz E, Zink M, Eisenacher S, Kirsch P, Jönsson EG, Fatouros-Bergman H, Flyckt L; KaSP, Pergola G, Quarto T, Bertolino A, Barch D, Meyer-Lindenberg A, Agartz I, Andreassen OA, Westlye LT. Mol Psychiatry. 2017 May 16. doi: 10.1038/mp.2017.106. PMID: 28507318 Impact Factor: 11.640 https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/28507318
Teaching portfolio
I am currently Section head of Continuing Professional Development at Centre for Psychiatry Research (CPF), Department of Clinical Neuroscience, Karolinska Institutet & Stockholms Läns Sjukvårdsområde (SLSO) and responsible for continuing professional development educations within psychiatry see
http://psykiatriforskning.se/Utbildning/
I teach and function as course leader and examiner at the Research School in Clinical Psychiatry (KI/SLL) at Karolinska Institutet https://ki.se/doktorand/forskarskola-kisll-inom-klinisk-psykiatri
I also currently teach at the medical program at KI https://ki.se/utbildning/2lk13-lakarprogrammet
and at METIS (courses for ST-läkare, resident in psychiatry) http://www.metiskurser.se/
My area of teaching has been in my area of expertise that is schizophrenia. However, I have also focused on several other topics, such ar for example how to write high quality grant applications and how to construct a research budget.
Education
COURSES AND DEGREES
1993-1998 Psychology Program (MSci) at the Department of Psychology at Stockholm University, Sweden, (300 credits)
DOCTORAL DEGREE
6 th March 2009: Ph.D. “Emotional interplay and Communication with patients diagnosed with Schizophrenia”, Department of Psychology at Stockholm University, Sweden.
POSTDOC APPOINTMENTS
2009-2016 Postdoctoral fellow (50%), Center for Psychiatry Research (CPF), Department of Clinical Neuroscience, Karolinska Institutet. Position with focus on cognition and Schizophrenia situated within Karolinska Schizophrenia Project (KaSP). Post doc mentors ass. prof. Lena Flyckt and prof. Lars Farde.