Academic interests
I am co-director of the NORMENT Centre and head of the Centre's "Illness trajectories and outcome prediction" research group. My current research is focused on:
- Mechanisms associated with environmental risk factors, gene x environment interactions: early trauma, migration and cannabis.
- Early illness phases in psychotic- and bipolar disorders, with a particular focus on negative symptoms and treatment response.
- Risk factors for the development of chronic illness and premature death, in particular suicide risk.
Teaching
Psychiatry; Medical students.
Introductory course in psychosocial research methods; PhD students.
Background
MD from the University of Trondheim 1981, licensed psychiatrist 1992, PhD from the University of Oslo 2000.
1992-2006: Clinical director at the treatment centre for early psychosis treatment and assistant research director at the Dept for Research and Development, Division of Psychiatry, Ullevål University Hospital.
2006-2012: Head of Psychosis Research Section, Ullevål University Hospital/Oslo University Hospital.
2010-2020: Professor II, University of Oslo.
2013-2020: Head of Research, Division of Mental Health and Addiction, Oslo University Hospital and Institute of Clinical Medicine.
2013-: Co-director, NORMENT Centre.
2020-: Professor I, University of Oslo
Collaborations
With research groups in psychotic and bipolar disorders at the University Hospitals in Stavanger, Bergen and Trondheim.
With the researchers in bipolar disorders at the University of Paris- Diderot - Paris, France.
With researchers in schizophrenia at the UCLA Semel Institute, Los Angeles, CA.
With other European researchers into negative symptoms in schizophrenia through the research network EuroNES.