In the face of major stressful life events, some individuals cope well whereas others experience persistent physical and mental distress. How we react to and recover from stress is related to a complex interplay of environmental factors, social circumstances, biological vulnerability, and resilience factors. Studies in animals and patient groups with considerable stress burden, such as post-traumatic stress disorder, indicate
Research projects
SpectrO: Understanding opioids’ variable effects
As illustrated by this word cloud generated by our surgery patients (see http://www.NorOp.net), opioids make people feel a lot of things. However, we currently lack the means to predict who will feel what: who will achieve good pain relief, who will vomit and who will be at risk of addiction. The dominating paradigm in the literature is the group-based RCT,
Presurgical opioid effects & postsurgical opioid use
Opioid analgesics are given to millions of people before and after surgery. Postsurgical opioid treatment carries risk of prolonged opioid use, and it is important to understand postsurgical opioid use across countries with varying prescription practices. Opioid analgesic effects are also the subject of strong beliefs (…)
Opioid regulation of reward in healthy humans
To understand how endogenous opioids modulate human reward, we gave healthy young men pills containing 10 mg morphine to stimulate the µ-opioid receptor; 50 mg naltrexone to block these receptors, and placebo on three separate days […]
Stress and drug effects
In this ERC-funded project, we hypothesise that addictive drugs, social support and other opioid-dependent events have different mechanisms of action depending on how you feel before the event […]
Oxytocin modulation of social attention
“The love hormone” appears to enhance attention to and information extracted from salient social cues such as the eyes. But is there anything special about the eyes? We conducted a series of studies to tease apart the functional significance of oxytocin enhancement of gaze to the eyes […]
Other ongoing projects
- Anhedonia in addiction: role of opioid medications
- Stress, pain and reward processing in extended release naltrexone treatment
- Quantification of oxytocin and other neurotransmittors
- Pain & pleasure: relief mechanisms, placebo, opioid mechanisms
Affective Brain lab 