Time and place
When
- 04. Jun 2025, 9:00 AM - 4:30 PM
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09.00 -10.00 |
Registration |
10.00 -10.15 |
Welcome - Center leader Erik Johnsen |
10.15 -11.00 |
Key note lecture - The HAMLETT study, maintenance vs early tapering in FEP, Iris Sommer - MRCP SAB member |
11.00 -11.20 |
Coffee Break |
Session 1 |
Clinical intervention trials and lived experience (chair: Farivar Fathian) |
11:20 -11.40 |
Update on the STABIL- NOR study (Wegovy vs placebo in SSD) - Rune A. Kroken |
11.45 -12.00 |
NORPEPS primary results - Gunnhild Hoprekstad |
12.05 -12.25 |
User Involvement from demand to reality? Anne Blindheim and Oda Djupevåg |
12.30 -13.00 |
Plenum discussion - Clinical trials meet lived experience; possibilities and challenges |
13.00 -14.00 |
LUNCH |
Session 2 |
Biological phenotyping (Chair: Vidar M. Steen) |
14.00 -14.20 |
Gene expression changes in persons with schizophrenia during the first weeks of antipsychotic treatment - Anja Torsvik |
14.25 -14.40 |
Inflammatory immune mechanisms in psychotic disorders - Attila Szabo |
14.45 -15.05 |
Coffee Break |
15.05 -15.40 |
The PsychoEducation with Digital elements and focus on Affective Lability (PEDAL) study: updates and progress - Trine Vik Lagerberg and Margrethe Collier Høegh |
15.45-16.15 |
Plenum discussion – Biological phenotyping, dissemination and lived experience; possibilities and challenges |
16.15-16.30 |
Closing remarks - Erik Johnsen |

Iris E. Sommer, M.D., Ph.D. is a psychiatrist and professor of psychiatry
University Medical Center Groningen, and member of MRCP scientific advisory board. Sommer is medical researcher with over 25 years of experience in brain research. Committed to advancing outcomes for patients with psychosis through innovative treatments and understanding underlying mechanisms. Key accomplishments in understanding hallucinations, using language as a marker for psychosis, nutritional psychiatry, tapering of antipsychotic medication and optimal treatment for women with psychosis. Proven track record in securing multimillion-euro grants, leading national and international consortia, communication with lay audience and publishing in high-impact journals. Sommer has research interests in optimizing the treatment of schizophrenia spectrum disorders, biomarkers for precision medicine, computational linguistics, neuroimaging, nutritional psychiatry and gut-brain axis, female-specific treatments.
Rune Andreas Kroken, M.D., Ph.D is a psychiatrist (worked previously as genteral practitioner in Lærdal). He is Principal investigator for the STABIL- NOR study, associated professor at the University of Bergen and consultant/ researcher in Division of Psychiatry, Haukeland University Hospital (HUH). His research interests are biologic treatment and inflammation in schizophrenia.
Gunnhild E. Hoprekstad, M.D. is a psychiatrist working in a FEP ward at (HUH). She is also a Ph.D. candidate (University of Bergen) with an interest in understanding the pathophysiology of psychosis with focus on the links between the psychotic symptoms and inflammation.
Anne Alnes Blindheim, M.A. has been working as Lived experience consultant with psychosis (Research department, HUH). She is Head of Psychosis Research with Lived Experience (PEK), a member of MRCPs Management Group, and works as a facilitator of user involvement in research.
Oda Djupevåg is working as Lived experience consultant with psychosis in STABIL-NOR study (previously in Research department, HUH), and is Co-head of Psychosis Research with Lived Experience (PEK).
Anja Torsvik, Ph.D. is a researcher in Dr Einar Martens Research Group for Biological Psychiatry at the University of Bergen and the group leader of immunology in MRCP. She holds a M.Sc. in molecular biology and a Ph.D. in cell biology. Her research focuses on molecular mechanisms and immunological changes related to treatment and the course of psychotic disorders.
Attila Szabo, Ph.D. is a researcher in Srdjan Djurovic's group at Oslo University Hospital and at the K.G. Jebsen Center for Neurodevelopmental Disorders at UiO. He is a biologist (M.Sc.) and immunologist (Ph.D.) by training. His research focuses on brain-immune interactions in health and disease, including both clinical biomarker and preclinical stem cell-based models.
Trine Vik Lagerberg, Ph.D. is a professor in clinical psychology at the Department of Psychology, University of Oslo and head of the Research and Innovation department in the Division of Mental Health and Addiction, Oslo University Hospital. She also heads the research group “Mechanisms of psychopathology”. Her main research focus has been on clinical aspects of bipolar disorder and in particular the comorbidity with substance use disorders. She has also initiated the establishment of a specialised clinical unit for bipolar disorder, where most of her current research takes place.
Margrethe Collier Høegh, Ph.D. is a clinical psychologist and a postdoctoral researcher at Section for Clinical Psychosis Research, Oslo University Hospital. Her main research area of interest is affect regulation in psychotic- and bipolar disorders.