MRCP 2nd Annual Meeting

Our speakers:

Bruno Etáin is currently Professor of Psychiatry at the University Paris Cité in France. He is also appointed as a visiting researcher (since 2015) at the Centre for Affective Disorders (Pr AH Young), IOPPN, King’s College of London, UK. He received his medical training and completed his psychiatric residency in France at the University Paris Descartes. In 2009, he achieved his Ph.D in Human Pathophysiology in the University of Paris East. He is in charge of the Centre of Expertise for Bipolar Disorder and Resistant Depression at Fernand Widal hospital in Paris where he acts as a psychiatrist, providing specialized consultations, medical expertise and psycho-education interventions for patients and caregivers. Since 2008, he is also one of the two executive directors of the FACE-BD network (FondaMental Advanced Centers of Expertise for Bipolar Disorder) that gathers 15 centres of expertise for Bipolar Disorders in France. Within the network, more than 6.000 patients with bipolar disorders have been assessed and have been included in a three years follow-up. He is head of a research group on mood disorders and addictions at the Institut National de la Santé et de la Recherche Médicale (INSERM UMRS_1144, www.umrs1144.com). His main domains of research are : genetic factors, early environmental factors (mainly childhood trauma), circadian rhythms, response to lithium in mood disorders and cellular ageing. He is leading several research protocols in bipolar disorders on circadian rhythms (funded by a PHRC- Assistance Publique des Hôpitaux de Paris since 2012), childhood trauma (funded by ANR - National Research Agency since 2018) and cellular aging (funded by Marcel Dassault Prize - Fondation Fondamental since 2020). He has contributed to more than 400 articles or chapter books about bipolar and mood disorders.

Ingrid Melle is a professor and head of the Adult Psychiatry Department at the Institute of Clinical Medicine, University of Oslo.  From 2013-23, she was co-director of CoE NORMENT. Her research focuses on the early phases of psychotic disorders, particularly the high risk of suicidal behaviors in this phase. She has recently finished studies on the ten- and twenty-year illness trajectories of first-episode patients, focusing on treatment response.

Kristin Fjelnseth Wold is a clinical psychologist and researcher (PhD) at the University of Oslo. She completed her doctoral research at the NORMENT Centre, Institute of Clinical Medicine, University of Oslo, on a prospective ten-year longitudinal follow-up study of first-episode psychosis patients, focusing on clinical recovery and treatment resistance. She is currently planning her postdoctoral work at Oslo University Hospital, examining decision making in treatment assessments and adherence to treatment guidelines, and finding better ways to help patients and clinicians make more informed treatment choices.  

Farivar Fathian is specialist in psychiatry and family medicine with a PhD (2019) within schizophrenia, inflammation and effect of antipsychotics. She has been working as MRCP coordinator and senior researcher for Exercise therapy for psychiatric disorders/ CVD-MENT project at HUH since April 2024. Fathian has been working as senior consultant psychiatrist since 2010 with experiences from departments- of psychosis, affective disorders (Haukeland University Hospital/HUH) and gerontopsychiatry (NKS Olaviken Gerontopsychiatric Hospital). She is also research administrative coordinator for Bergen Psychosis Research group (BPRG) and member of Norwegian Network for Severe Mental Illnesses (NORSMI).

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. 

Ingrid Torp Johansen is a medical doctor and researcher. She did her PhD at the NORMENT Centre. The project covered sex differences in side effects of antipsychotic drugs in severe mental disorders and their associations with hormones. At present, she is working as a postdoctoral fellow in the “VIRAL-MI” project, where the aim is to investigate relationships between infections and mental disorders. Her main research interests are to increase knowledge about etiology and pathophysiology of severe mental disorders, so we can improve treatment strategies for this group of patients.

Jordi Requena Osete is a PhD and a Researcher in the Psychiatric Molecular Genetics group at Oslo University Hospital, Norway. He holds a BSc in Biology from the University of Girona, an MSc in Biomedical Research, and a PhD in Biomedicine from the University of Barcelona, where his doctoral work focused on messenger RNA–based reprogramming of human induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs). After relocating to Norway, Requena Osete served as a Postdoctoral Fellow and subsequently as a Research Fellow at the NORMENT Centre, Section for Psychosis Research, Oslo University Hospital. He was later appointed as a Researcher within the PSYCH-STRATA H2020 European project. His research centers on the use of iPSC-derived cellular models to investigate the etiology of severe mental disorders, including schizophrenia and bipolar disorder, as well as to study the molecular effects of mood stabilizers and antipsychotic medications. Recently, he was appointed as a Researcher at the Mohn Research Centre for Psychotic Disorders, HUH.

Jørn Henrik Vold is a PhD, specialist in psychiatry and in addiction medicine, consultant at the Psychiatric Clinic, HUH and senior researcher at Bergen Addiction Research (BAR), Department of Addiction Medicine, HUH and the University of Bergen.

Kristian Varden Gjerde has been working as senior consultant psychiatrist at NKS Olaviken gerontopsychiatric hospital since 2022 with experience from neurology and geriatric psychiatry as well as neurological and psychiatric research. Gjerde is also a PhD candidate focusing on cellular adhesion molecules (CAMs) and cognition in non-affective psychosis (CAMsCog project) investigating CAMs in drug-naïve patients with schizophrenia-spectrum disorders.