Research Projects 2010
University of Uppsala
Research projects underway presently are applications of Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) on different chronic medical problems. Following is a description of current projects.
ACT and the treatment of Chronic Pain
In the past 2 years our self help book ’Living beyond your pain, (Dahl, Lundgren2007) has been evaluated for clients with chronic pain as a self help manual both in New Zeeland (Johnston, 2007) and here in Uppsala at the Pain Rehabilitation Center at the University Hospital in Uppsala. The project is a brief 6 week intervention with only one face to face therapy session and rest of the therapy is an at home self-help with internet or telephone support. Results have been promising and this evaluation will continue under 2008-2009 in cooperation with the Department of Psychology and the Pain Center at the University Hospital.
ACT and the treatment of Obesity See viktpsykologen.se
In cooperation with a surgical department in Stockholm, in cooperation with Dag Arvidsson (http://www.cftk.se/sleeve_gastrectomy.asp) we have a larger project evaluating the effects of ACT for clients that undergo sleeve gastrectomy which is a bariatric procedure that removes a portion of the stomach and is, in Sweden used for those moderately overweight clients. Sandra Weineland(sandra.weineland@hotmail.com) is our doctoral student there. The project here includes the development of screening instruments, correlation of psychological factors such as stigmatization, flexibility, emotional eating to outcome. ACT interventions in the form of group, individual and internet treatment are being developed presently.
ACT and the Treatment of Epilepsy
In cooperation with the Department of Neurology at the University Hospital at Uppsala University and Steven C. Schachter, MD
Professor of Neurology, Harvard Medical School Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston, USA we have a project evaluating the effects of ACT on persons with drug refractory seizures. Similar to the research projects we did in South Africa (Lundgren, Dahl, et al 2006) and In Pune India (Lundgren, Dahl et al 2008) we are doing a randomized controlled trial comparing ACT to an attention control condition on clients with frequent epileptic seizures in the Uppsala regions together with the Epilepsy Center at the University Hospital in Uppsala. This project will be going on 2008-2009. This spring we started a new project at Harvard Medical School together with Prof Steven Schacter. This project aims at looking for biological markers to the psychological interventions of the seizure and EEG activity. We will be looking for reliable ways of recognizing the seizure before it starts by using technology that detects paroxysmal activity 45 minutes prior to a seizure. In this way we will test if psychological (for example acceptance vs control) interventions can influence the interictal activity and eventually prevent the seizure from happening.
Tobias Lundgren is the doctoral student on this project (www.tobiaslundgren.se)
Cooperation with University of Wollongong Australia
Together with psychologist and doctoral student Ross Leonard, this is a project examing the effects of a short term ACT project on the problem on domestic violence in an Aboriginee Population in Central Australia. The project will take place in Australia and we presently have involved 2 clinical psychology students who will do their thesis on this project.