SAMTALER I KØBENHAVN OG ONLINE

Forskning

Som forsker interesserer jeg mig for, hvordan man bedst og sikrest kommer ud af psykofarmaka (medicin mod psykisk lidelse), med alt hvad det kan indebære af abstinenser, tilbagevendende følelsesliv, tankemylder, angst, manglende tiltro til egne evner, psykologisk afhængighed af pillerne og sygdomsorienteret selvbillede og identitet. Langt de fleste får det bedre af at komme ud af medicinen, når bare udtrapningen foregår korrekt og man får erstattet medicinen med nye, psykologiske strategier. Jeg forsvarede min Ph.d.- afhandling i psykiatri i juni 2022 ved Københavns Universitet efter fem års forskning i emnet på det daværende Nordisk Cochrane Center på Rigshospitalet. Du finder min Ph.d.-afhandling her.

Mine forskningsartikler

Anders Sørensen, Henricus G. Ruhé og Klaus Munkholm

25. august 2021

Brain imaging techniques enable the visualization of serotonin transporter (SERT) occupancy as a measure of the proportion of SERT blocked by an antidepressant at a given dose. We aimed to systematically review the evidence on the relationship between antidepressant dose and SERT occupancy. We searched PubMed and Embase (last search 20 May 2021) for human in vivo, withinsubject PET, or SPECT studies measuring SERT occupancy at any dose of any antidepressant with highly selective radioligands…

Mark Abie Horowitz, Adele Framer, Michael P Hengartner, Anders Sørensen, David Taylor

14. December

Adaptation of the brain to the presence of a drug predicts withdrawal on cessation. The outcome of adaptation is often referred to as ‘physical dependence’ in pharmacology, as distinct from addiction, although these terms have unfortunately become conflated in some diagnostic guides. Physical dependence to antidepressants may occur in some patients, consistent with the fact that some patients experience withdrawal effects from these medications…

Anders Sørensen, Karsten Juhl Jørgensen og Klaus Munkholm 

6. august 2022

Background: Antidepressant withdrawal symptoms may mimic symptoms of depression relapse and can be challenging for patients when tapering or discontinuing antidepressants. We aimed to assess how withdrawal symptoms are described in major clinical practice guidelines on depression. Methods: Systematic review of major clinical practice guidelines on depression from the United Kingdom, the United States, Canada, Australia, Singapore, Ireland, and New Zealand…

Anders Sørensen, Karsten Juhl Jørgensen og Klaus Munkholm

  1. december 2021

Clinical practice guidelines (CPGs) on depression generally recommend treatment with an antidepressant for moderate to severe episodes of depression as one treatment option and, given the clinical situation, the treatment is recommended to stop after a certain period.1–3 About half of the patients on antidepressants who try to discontinue or reduce the dose experience withdrawal symptoms,4,5 including flu-like symptoms, anxiety, emotional lability, lowering of mood, irritability, bouts of crying, dizziness, shaking, fatigue and electric shock sensations…

Michael P. Hengartner , Lukas Schulthess, Anders Sorensen og Adele Framer

  1. oktober 2020

Background: Protracted withdrawal syndrome (PWS) after stopping antidepressants (frequently also referred to as post-acute withdrawal syndrome or PAWS) has been described in a few case reports. However, a detailed quantitative analysis of specific symptom manifestations in antidepressant PWS is still lacking. Methods: We extracted patient narratives from a large English-language internet forum SurvivingAntidepressants.org, a peer support site concerned about withdrawal from antidepressants…

Michael P. Hengartner, Janus C. Jakobsen, Anders Sørensen og Martin Plöderl

26. oktober 2020

It has been claimed that efficacy estimates based on the Hamilton Depression Rating-Scale (HDRS) underestimate antidepressants true treatment effects due to the instrument’s poor psychometric properties. The aim of this study is to compare efficacy estimates based on the HDRS with the gold standard procedure, the Montgomery-Asberg Depression RatingScale (MADRS)…

Peter C. Gøtzsche, Simon Vinther og Anders Sørensen

  1. december 2019

Forced admission and forced treatment orders in psychiatry are regulated by law but these measures are highly controversial, for two main reasons. Firstly, they violate basic human rights and discriminate against psychiatric patients. The fundamental human right to equal recognition before the law applies to everyone, also to people with mental disorders (United Nations, 2014)…

Peter C. Gøtzsche og Anders Sørensen

12. august 2020

We assessed the record of 30 consecutive patients who had appealed decisions about forced medication with antipsychotics to the Psychiatrics Appeals Board in Denmark. In all 21 cases where there was information about the effects of previous drugs, the psychiatrists stated that antipsychotics  had had a good effect whereas none of the patients shared this view…