Frederik Bernt Scharff defends his PhD thesis

CSS

Title

'PTSD treatment in the Danish psychiatric services: Effectiveness of routine treatment and feasibility of an mHealth intervention'.

Time and place

5th October 2022 at 3 pm (CET).

The defence will take place in Auditorium 15.3.01 at The Faculty of Social Sciences (CSS), Øster Farimagsgade 5, 1353 Copenhagen.

The defence will also be available online on Zoom.

Link to the defence.

Passcode: 185463.

After the defence there will be a reception in the canteen (room 03.2.M202) at the Department of Psychology, Øster Farimagsgade 2A, 2nd floor, 1353 Copenhagen.  

Assessment committee

  • Associate Professor Karen-Inge Karstoft, Department of Psychology, University of Copenhagen, Denmark (chair)

  • Professor Anna-Clara Hollander, Karolinska Institutet, Sweden

  • Professor Mia Beck Lichtenstein, University of Southern Denmark (SDU), Denmark

Supervisor

  • Associate Professor Stine Bjerrum Møller, Department of Psychology, University of Copenhagen & University of Southern Denmark (SDU), Denmark

Abstract

The number of patients seeking treatment for PTSD in the mental health services of the capital region of Denmark (MHS-CRD) has been increasing significantly. This creates a need for tools to increase treatment outcomes at low-to-no cost and underlines the need for research into the effectiveness of existing treatments in naturalistic clinical settings. Therefore, the aims of this thesis were to: 1) investigate the effectiveness of PTSD treatment provided in the MHS-CRD in a naturalistic sample and 2) to investigate the feasibility of implementing a mental health mobile application (mHealth) for PTSD-patients in the MHS-CRD. The two studies included in the thesis showed a limited effectiveness of the existing treatment in the MHS-CRD, as well as a significant gender difference in treatment outcome. Further, the studies illustrated challenges in implementing mHealth interventions for PTSD-patients, and a need for further research into how to optimize the effect of these in psychiatric PTSD-populations.