About Osher Center for Integrative Health

At the Center, we apply interdisciplinary and trans-diagnostic perspectives to investigate determinants of well-being in relation to somatic as well as psychiatric health conditions. Such perspectives are applied to optimize and complement clinical care to better meet the needs of the whole person. 

The work is focused on both basic and applied knowledge to understand mechanisms for sickness, pain, placebo and self-ratings of health. Development and implementation of treatment for e.g., stress, fatigue or sleep disorders are also central. A health systems perspective is applied, including work to develop and standardize the use of patient-reported outcomes.

In integrative health, conventional medicine can be combined with treatments or knowledge from alternative and complementary areas, but with high standards for scientific evidence and evaluation. At the center, such work is mainly related to so called "Mind-Body" area, for example psychological treatment to meet transdiagnostic problems that are common to patients across disorders, or biological mechanisms related to feelings of sickness or global ratings of health. As a center in a Swedish university, it cannot deliver care, but the center collaborates closely with care units, especially at the Gustavsberg’s primary care center outside Stockholm.

For more information on complementary and alternative medicine

The Osher centre has been founded through generous donations from The Bernard Osher Foundation and The Barbro Osher Pro Suecia Foundation in 2005 and in 2023. In addition to the center at Karolinska Institutet, there are several Osher Centers in the US, see Osher Collaborative for Integrative Health.

Several of the research projects and educational activities are performed in close collaboration with the Stress Research Institute, Department of Psychology, Stockholm University.