Dr. Johan Nyrenius awarded substantial funding grant for new project on Catatonia.
Dr. Johan Nyrenius receives funding for new Catatonia project.
The GNC is delighted to announce that Dr. Johan Nyrenius has been awarded a generous grant of 825,000 SEK from the Stig and Ragna Gorthon Foundation to support his upcoming project, The Catatonia Helsingborg – Overlap and Outcomes Transdiagnostic Study (CAHOOTS).
The project, scheduled to commence in 2025, aims to further our understanding of catatonia and its complex and interwoven relationship with other psychiatric conditions (ESSENCE). This is an observational study which will be run by GNC researchers Dr. Johan Nyrenius in Helsingborg and Dr. Valdemar Landgren in Skövde.
In 2013, Catatonia was reinstated as its own diagnostic entity with the DSM-5, after having been considered part of the schizophrenia construct for over a century. Relatively little research has been carried out on Catatonia, despite the fact that up to 10% of adult psychiatry inpatients are affected by this disorder.
The main aim is to find clinically useful methods for earlier diagnosis of catatonia in adult psychiatric inpatient settings, as well as increasing the knowledge about clinical presentation and outcomes of catatonia in psychiatric inpatient settings.
“The project will study outcomes of catatonia and symptomatic overlap between catatonia, neurodevelopmental disorders, schizophrenia and bipolar disorder. The project will also investigate possible behavioural, motor and biological markers that may be unique for catatonia,” says Dr. Johan Nyrenius.
The CAHOOTS study will also include Dr. Max Thorsson and a senior reference group for the study which includes GNC’s Professor Christopher Gillberg and Professor Eva Billstedt, Professor Neera Ghaziuddin and Professor Mohammad Ghaziuddin from the University of Michigan, and Associate Professor Jonas Eberhard from Lund university.
The Stig and Ragna Gorthon Foundation’s fundamental purpose is to promote medical scientific research, development projects, and education. Financial support is primarily given to those individuals active in Helsingborg, Sweden.
With this substantial financial support from the Stig and Ragna Gorthon Foundation, this research hopes to fill in critical gaps in the understanding of Catatonia, allowing for improved diagnosis and intervention.
TEXT BY ANNA SPYROU
