Team Thomas Frisell

Clinical epidemiology of multiple sclerosis and inflammatory joint diseases

Team Frisell is a methodologically oriented part of Johan Askling's research group on chronic inflammatory disease epidemiology. Working closely with clinical experts, our expertise lies in study design, biostatistical methods, and how to make the most of registers and other secondary data sources for clinical epidemiology. Motivated by the value our studies can bring people living with rheumatic or neurological chronic inflammatory diseases, we see it as our job to find the right methodological tool to maximize the contribution of each research project.

Team members are active in teaching, primarily on the post-graduate level, and our studies include epidemiological projects on the causes of diseases and to describe changing patient population, clinical projects aiming to identify prognostic markers, monitor the safety of treatments, and support clinical decision-making, and more directly methodological projects to validate data sources or evaluate statistical methods. We are mostly active in research on multiple sclerosis, rheumatoid arthritis and spondyloarthritits, but the methods we use can be applied to any chronic disease.

Team members

• Andrei Barbulescu, Affiliated to research
• Elisa Longinetti, post doctoral researcher
• Matilda Morin, PhD student
• Suvi Virtanen, project coordinator

Research support

• The Swedish Research Council
• Forte
• Patient Centered Outcomes Institute (PCORI)
• The US Department of Defence
• Karolinska Institutet
• NEURO Sweden
• Reumatikerfonden

Selected Publications

Safety of biological and targeted synthetic disease-modifying antirheumatic drugs for rheumatoid arthritis as used in clinical practice: results from the ARTIS programme.
Frisell T, Bower H, Morin M, Baecklund E, Di Giuseppe D, Delcoigne B, Feltelius N, Forsblad-d'Elia H, Lindqvist E, Lindström U, Askling J,
Ann Rheum Dis 2023 Feb;():

Infection Risks Among Patients With Multiple Sclerosis Treated With Fingolimod, Natalizumab, Rituximab, and Injectable Therapies.
Luna G, Alping P, Burman J, Fink K, Fogdell-Hahn A, Gunnarsson M, Hillert J, Langer-Gould A, Lycke J, Nilsson P, Salzer J, Svenningsson A, Vrethem M, Olsson T, Piehl F, Frisell T
JAMA Neurol 2020 Feb;77(2):184-191

Cancer Risk for Fingolimod, Natalizumab, and Rituximab in Multiple Sclerosis Patients.
Alping P, Askling J, Burman J, Fink K, Fogdell-Hahn A, Gunnarsson M, Hillert J, Langer-Gould A, Lycke J, Nilsson P, Salzer J, Svenningsson A, Vrethem M, Olsson T, Piehl F, Frisell T
Ann Neurol 2020 May;87(5):688-699

Glucocorticoid exposure and the risk of serious infections in rheumatoid arthritis-a marginal structural model application.
Barbulescu A, Sjölander A, Delcoigne B, Askling J, Frisell T
Rheumatology (Oxford) 2023 Feb;()

Temporal trends in adverse pregnancy outcomes in axial spondyloarthritis in Sweden: a cohort study. 
Morin M, Frisell T, Stephansson O, et al. The Lancet Rheumatology 2023;5(3):e121-e29. doi: 10.1016/s2665-9913(23)00001-2.

Effectiveness of baricitinib and tofacitinib compared with bDMARDs in RA: results from a cohort study using nationwide Swedish register data.
Barbulescu A, Askling J, Chatzidionysiou K, Forsblad-d'Elia H, Kastbom A, Lindström U, Turesson C, Frisell T
Rheumatology (Oxford) 2022 Oct;61(10):3952-3962

Impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on morbidity and mortality in patients with inflammatory joint diseases and in the general population: a nationwide Swedish cohort study.
Bower H, Frisell T, Di Giuseppe D, Delcoigne B, Ahlenius GM, Baecklund E, Chatzidionysiou K, Feltelius N, Forsblad-d'Elia H, Kastbom A, Klareskog L, Lindqvist E, Lindström U, Turesson C, Sjöwall C, Askling J,
Ann Rheum Dis 2021 Aug;80(8):1086-1093

COVID-19 clinical outcomes and DMT of MS patients and population-based controls.
Longinetti E, Bower H, McKay KA, Englund S, Burman J, Fink K, Fogdell-Hahn A, Gunnarsson M, Hillert J, Langer-Gould A, Lycke J, Nilsson P, Salzer J, Svenningsson A, Mellergård J, Olsson T, Piehl F, Frisell T
Ann Clin Transl Neurol 2022 Sep;9(9):1449-1458

The Swedish medical birth register during five decades: documentation of the content and quality of the register.
Cnattingius S, Källén K, Sandström A, Rydberg H, Månsson H, Stephansson O, Frisell T, Ludvigsson JF
Eur J Epidemiol 2023 Jan;38(1):109-120

Validation of the Swedish Multiple Sclerosis Register: Further Improving a Resource for Pharmacoepidemiologic Evaluations.
Alping P, Piehl F, Langer-Gould A, Frisell T,
Epidemiology 2019 Mar;30(2):230-233