Suicide och suicide attempts
We study how to understand and manage the risk of suicide, in several studies on people who have already made a suicide attempt. We base our studies on register data as well as near-patient research, with assessments of suicide risk in patients. We have taken a particular interest in young people; for example, students. The common purpose is to find ways to understand suicidal behaviour and to prevent suicide. In close collaboration with Norra Stockholm Psychiatry (NSP), harbouring Sweden's largest psychiatric emergency department, we have studied the importance of a screening instrument for suicidal behaviour, and run a randomized, controlled multicenter study led by Lund University to evaluate the effect of the psychological treatment ASSIP (Attempted Suicide Short Intervention Program) for people who have attempted suicide. We have a strong educational engagement, e. g. with KI medical school. Currently, most of our research activities are collaborations with projects predominantly led by others.
Our group has shown that mental illness such as schizophrenia and affective disorder significantly increases the risk of dying by suicide after a suicide attempt compared to less severe mental disorders. Also among young people, psychosis is an important risk factor after suicide attempts. Using a violent method in suicide attempts increases the risk of later suicide. Among people who have been provided health care for self-harm in adolescence, men have a greater impact on social function in adulthood than do women, while the likelihood of later suicide or mental illness does not differ between boys and girls who have been treated for self-harm. In a unique study of more than 18,000 patients in a psychiatric emergency department where the outcome was completed suicide within a very short time after the emergency visit, the screening instrument C-SSRS Screen shows a value for predicting suicide. Resultas indicate that this instrument might be useful for triage and evaluation of patient safety aspects upon arrival at the psychiatric emergency department.
Transcultural psychiatry
Part of our group is linked to the Transcultural Centre - Region Stockholm's Knowledge Centre in Transcultural Psychiatry and Issues related to Migration and Health. We have expertise in qualitative research methods and have several research collaborations, e.g on asylum seekers and suicide and on development of culturally sensitive psychiatric diagnostics. We further participate in the project "Early intervention for newly arrived children" (TINA), run by the research group EPiCSS at the Department of Global Public Health at Karolinska Institutet. The TINA project aims to find new ways of overcoming barriers for children with migration backgrounds, to access of early support for mental illness. We run research projects on migration and eating disorders, transgenerational trauma and health care seeking in the Eritrean-Swedish population in Stockholm and on health and welfare-needs among national minorities.
Intercultural communication
We are also conducting the research project "Enhanced preparedness in a societal crisis - analysis and lessons learned from intercultural health communication during the COVID-19 pandemic," funded by the Swedish Research Council from 2022-25. This project aims to explore how health information can best reach non-Swedish speaking people during a health crisis such as the COVID-19 pandemic. The Stockholm region was severely affected by the pandemic, but the pandemic impacted various groups and residential areas significantly differently. Particularly, groups of migrants with low integration into Swedish society were overrepresented among the infected and deceased. As contributing to this, deficient adaptation to the target groups' needs of government information for information in their native languages, has been highlighted. This study explores lessons and experiences from the region's intercultural communication efforts through focus group interviews and individual in-depth interviews with staff who participated in the region's communication efforts and with migrants living in areas (Järva and Södertälje) that received information. The results of the study will contribute to formulating "best practices" in intercultural communication during a health crisis for groups with limited knowledge of Swedish. The study is conducted in collaboration with Uppsala University.