Christine Ødegaard: Medication free treatment in psychosis

Christine Ødegaard is born and raised in Bergen, she has a master in cultural science from UiB, and previous experience from research within psychiatry.

Medication free treatment for patients with psychosis is recently implemented in psychiatric outpatient clinics in Bergen to meet a demand from user organizations. The use of anti-psychotic medication is debated both in terms of severe side effects, and, in particular, long term usefulness.

Medication free treatment provides a treatment choice other than, or sometimes in addition to, medication. This is supposed to be a choice from a varied menu;

• music therapy,
• individual therapy,
• group therapy,
• family therapy,
• job support, and
• exercise.

In this context the study aim to answer how people experience the meaning of choice in utilizing this kind of treatment, their process of recovery, and if patient experiences and evaluations deviate from the experiences made by the staff working in the medication free treatment program.

We have conducted eleven in-depth interviews with patients, three focus groups with staff, and performed participant observations in group and individual music therapy. All data have been collected from three different outpatient clinics in Bergen, Norway; Kronstad DPS, Bjørgvin DPS and Øyane DPS, in 2017 and 2018. The study is planned to end in February 2020.

Ødegaard has published an article about sociocultural challenges of managing bipolar disorder in Australian and New Zealand Journal of Psychiatry: An ISBD perspective on the sociocultural challenges of managing bipolar disorder: A content analysis and co-authored several book chapters about being next-of-kin to someone with bipolar disorder in Bipolare Lidelser.