GRANTS. The Centre for Ethics, Law and Mental Health (CELAM) at the University of Gothenburg is receiving SEK 15 million from the Forte research council for a research program to develop evidence-based practice in forensic psychiatry. This major research grant is considered an acknowledgment that the multidisciplinary approach of the center has turned out well.
The Forte initiative provides opportunities for arranging national meetings and bringing together representatives of forensic psychiatric units in Sweden, and it also offers the potential to promote forensic psychiatry research in Gothenburg.
“We finally will be in a position to conduct follow-up studies of forensic psychiatric patients to identify clinical markers and then apply them in treatment studies,” says Peter Andiné, who is a chief physician at Sahlgrenska University Hospital and associate professor in forensic psychiatry specializing in experimental neurobiology. “The field of forensic psychiatry lags far behind other medical fields, and I believe we fairly quickly can go a long way with quite simple means. Forensic psychiatric treatment in Sweden can finally become more evidence-based, and in this respect we are going to make a number of contributions.”
The full title of the program is Development of evidence-based practice in forensic psychiatry: interdisciplinary mapping and method development for a multifaceted and vulnerable patient group. The project manager is Märta Wallinius, who is a psychologist and researcher with a PhD at the Centre for Ethics, Law and Mental Health (CELAM) at the University of Gothenburg as well as at Lund University.
In recent national surveys, Swedish forensic psychiatry has received scathing criticism for the lack of oversight in its activities and the absence of evidence-based practice. This program will create the preconditions for, and begin the development of, evidence-based practice within Swedish forensic psychiatry. It will identify important treatment areas, clarify the conditions for patient participation, develop and evaluate treatment interventions for forensic psychiatry and initiate a national research platform for interdisciplinary forensic psychiatric research.
Sahlgrenska Academy’s Thomas Nilsson is taking part in the program along with Peter Andiné. Both are members of the psychiatry and neurochemistry section of the Institute of Neuroscience and Physiology.
“The great support provided to forensic psychiatry by the former head of the Institute, Agneta Holmäng, and Section Head Henrik Zetterberg has been invaluable. Sahlgrenska Academy is now the organization where research and development of a more evidence-based forensic psychiatry in Sweden will begin to take shape,” says Peter Andiné, who particularly highlights the establishment of the professorship that Henrik Anckarsäter assumed in 2008 as an important milestone for forensic psychiatry in Gothenburg.
“The program grant serves as a validation that the long-term investment the Academy has made in interdisciplinary forensic psychiatric research was right. It is proof that with our interdisciplinary approach, ranging from neurobiology to philosophy, we are on the right path,” says Thomas Nilsson, who is an associate professor in psychological assessment in forensic psychiatry and a forensic psychologist at Sahlgrenska University Hospital.
TEXT: ELIN LINDSTRÖM CLAESSEN
