Academic interests
Bipolar disorder, sleep, substance use, affect, self-medication.
The PhD Project
Bipolar disorder is considered a severe mental disorder, affecting approximately 1 % of the general population worldwide. Use of substances like cannabis and alcohol is common in people with bipolar disorder. Even though this initially can ameliorate symptoms, the long-term consequences seem to be increased symptom severity and poorer functioning. In this project, we want to investigate whether affective symptoms (depression and mania) look any different in persons with bipolar disorder and current substance use disorders, and to try to answer the question of “the chicken and the egg”: do people with bipolar disorder use substances to regulate their symptoms (self-medication), or does the substance use trigger these symptoms, and do we see signs of a “spiral”? We will try to answer these questions by having the participants self-monitor their symptoms and substance use in an app over time, as well as wear an actigraph that registers activity (acceleration). The goal is to get a better understanding of substance use in bipolar disorder, which in turn can contribute to better prevention and treatment.
Title of the project: Self-medication in bipolar disorder: the temporal relationship between mood, sleep and substance use.
Background
Clinical Psychologist.
Funding and collaboration
Empolyee at NORMENT (Norwegain Centre for Mental Disorders Research), Oslo University Hospital.
This project is financed by the Norwegian Research Council.
Research Team
This project is a part of the research group Mechanisms of psychopathology at NORMENT. Main supervisor is Trine Vik Lagerberg (OUS/NORMENT). Co-supervisors are Sofie Ragnhild Aminoff (OUS/NORMENT) and Roger Hagen (UIO).