Psychiatric research
Research into the psychotic disorders, especially schizophrenia, lies at the heart of the research in the disturbances of
consciousness.
Schizophrenia involves changes in the basic sense of identity and changes in the
immediate, automatic experience of meaning and naturalness of the world. Patients with schizophrenia may experience peculiar changes in
thinking, emotional life, voluntary acts and social relations.
In a way, schizophrenia can be said to be a condition in which anomalous changes in the consciousness of the patients reveal and bring forth to our attention the structures of normality that we otherwise experience as given and which therefore go
unnoticed.
Research on schizophrenia allows us to focus on many aspects of consciousness and biological conditions that may accompany changes and deviations in the functioning of
consciousness. Research into psychotic disorders is carried out by teams at the University hospitals in Copenhagen.
The psychiatric research has the following focuses:
1) Basic studies
Basic studies (fundamental research) on structures of consciousness in psychoses and their development over time – in some cases from early
childhood.
The purpose is to contribute to general understanding both of psychotic conditions and of structures of
consciousness, classification of psychoses, and diagnostic guidelines, especially for early-onset cases.
2) The connection between the functioning of consciousness (psychopathology) and the structure, functioning and signal pathways of the brain
This research employs techniques including electrophysiological methods (for
example, magnetic brain stimulation) and functional imaging to visualise the workings of the brain in connection with psychiatric symptoms and neurophysiological
disturbances, for example, memory or attention impairments.
The research team is interested in the influence of hereditary genes on the risk of developing a psychosis and also in possible interactions between genetic sensitivity and early environmental factors
(such as, for example, complications at birth or lack of early emotional
attachment) that might contribute to the development of psychoses.
The internationally unique long-term studies of children and young people at high risk of psychosis have been extended with actual molecular genetic studies of large families, with a view to finding precisely which genes contribute to the risk of
psychosis.
As part of a general molecular genetic/psychiatric biobank project (which involves the collection of genetic
material, for example, blood samples), investigations are being carried out into possible links between a large number of genes, mental
disorders, psychiatric symptoms and personality traits.
3) Disease models
Lastly, the psychiatry team is working with a number of animal models, in which “disease models” for various symptoms, for
example, anxiety, depression and stress, are created in laboratory animals (usually rats). Studies of this type allow a very detailed investigation
of, for example, the relations between structure, function and signal transmission in the
brain, on the one hand, and symptoms and potential treatments on the other.
The condition of schizophrenia has a central place also in this approach to the body-mind
relationship. All the studies require interdisciplinary (interfaculty) research cooperation to elucidate the central hypotheses and to put the results into a creative
context.^
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"Skriget" by Edward Munch
©Munch-Museet/COPY-DAN
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