Collaborating groups

Stockholm university

Division of Biological Psychology and Treatment Research

One of the research divisions at the Stress Research Institute is the Division of Biological Psychology and Treatment Research. It consists of Professor Torbjörn Åkerstedt who is Division Manager, Ass. Professor Aleksander Perski, Ass. Professor Giorgio Grossi, Dr Göran Kecklund, Dr Arne Lowden and several PhD students.

The group focuses on research on the links between stress and sleep, shift work and sleep, sleep loss and sleepiness, the measurement of restitution, sleep regulation, fatigue, and psychological treatment of stress disorders. The facilities include two laboratories; a sleep laboratory with 2 beds (sound insulated), arrangements for drawing blood unobtrusively, and with equipment for ambulatory recording of EEG, EOG, EKG, etc. through 6 solid state recorders and also a biochemistry laboratory for analysis of endocrine and other variables (cortisol, testosterone, melatonin).

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Division of Epidemiology

Another research division at the Stress Research Institute is the Division for Epidemiology with Dr. Hugo Westerlund as Division Manager. The division also includes Prof. Emeritus Töres Theorell’s (MD), Dr. Linda Hansson, Dr. Constanze Leineweber, Dr. Gabriel Oxenstierna, and Dr. Dan Hasson. Several others are more loosely connected to the group.

The group is in charge of the longitudinal SLOSH cohort study, which is focused on work organization, psychosocial work environment, restitution, and health. SLOSH is linked to national register data on e.g. work, income, morbidity, and mortality.

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Division of Work- and Organizational Psychology

The division is one of six divisions within the Department of Psychology. Its research focuses on e.g. the balance and interaction between paid work and life outside of work job insecurity, new organizational and employment forms. The division comprises of 4 professors, 5 associate professors, and 7 researchers/lecturers, as well as approximately 15 doctoral students/research assistants and 1 research administrator.

The division is probably the largest research group within the area of work and organizational psychology in Scandinavia. Some key names are Professor Gunnar Aronsson, Associate Professor Johnny Hellgren, Associate Professor Petra Lindfors, Dr Christin Mellner, Associate Professor Katharina Näswall, and Professor Magnus Sverke. Professor emeritus Gunn Johansson, one of the leading specialists in occupational psychology, is still active and will have an advisory role. The group has an extensive collaboration with the Division of Epidemiology at the Stress Research Institute.

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Karolinska institutet

Stress and Psychoneuro-immunology/endocrinology

The research group for Stress and Psychoneuro-immunology/endocrinology at the Division of Psychology at the Department of Clinical Neuroscience, is headed by Associate Professor Mats Lekander. The group also includes Professor Bo Melin, Associate Professor Caroline-Olgart Höglund, and Dr. John Axelsson. The group has extensive collaboration with the Division of Biological Psychology and Treatment Research at Stress Research Institute and with other groups within KI.

Among its foci are endocrinology and immunology in relation to stress, impaired sleep, health behavior, and brain metabolism. The group has a unique set of facilities. Mats Lekander is a member of the Stockholm Brain Institute and is also the co-director of Osher Center for Integrative Medicine at the Karolinska Institutet. This, and the bifurcation of his research group give means to neuroimaging (fMRI and PET), biobanking, immunological and endocrinological, psychophysiological analyses and additional biomedical recourses (including research wards) at KI and Karolinska University Hospital. Several projects involve epidemiological approaches to stress, sleep, inflammation and health which in turn makes Swedish registers available, with the largest merge of data include app. 9 million Swedes.

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Division of Insurance Medicine

The Division of Insurance Medicine at the Department of Clinical Neuroscience, is lead by Professor Kristina Alexanderson. The research has a strong focus on sickness absence, work health, injury, sickness, health, life style and living conditions. The research programmes are interdisciplinary, factors at different structural levels are included, both from individual-, organizational and societal levels and focus on contemporary social problems often in close cooperation with the users of the knowledge. The program holds some 25 persons of different professional backgrounds, including Prof Marklund, and some ten post-docs.

An essential asset of the group is the many large and high quality datasets, most of them in terms of prospective cohort studies, e.g. all 246,000 inhabitants in one county with a 12 year follow-up, 60,000 twins followed over life with several different types of data, including SA and DP; 100,000 patients who in 1992-2006 had a coronary revascularization, followed till 2007. The group will soon have data on the whole Swedish population aged 16-65, regarding demographics, income, SA/DP etcetera, where 5,100,000 can be followed up for 23 years.

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Division of Occupational and Environmental Medicine

The Division of Occupational and Environmental Medicine has three units and is part of the Department of Public Health Sciences. The general aim of the division is to identify and quantify factors of importance for health in the working life. Most of the work is applied aiming to increase the knowledge regarding the association between work and health and how different chemical, ergonomical, physical or psychosocial exposures by themselves or in combination may contribute to health or disease.

The division include Professor Magnus Svartengren, Ass. Professor Lena Hillert, Ass. Professor Mikael Forsman, Ass. Professor Carl Åborg and a large number of occupational physicians, psychologists and other professions. There is also access to a number of laboratory facilities. The group has considerable collaboration with the Division of Biological Psychology and Treatment at Stress Research Institute and many other departments at KI. Apart from being the clinical partner, the division has a long research interest in effects of combined effects of physical and mental load and is engaged in research on what psychosocial factors characterize high absence companies.

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