Helsinki, Uusimaa, Finland
I graduated from medicine and specialized in psychiatry at the University of Helsinki, Finland. My primary research project has been the first one in Finland to provide light therapy via the eyes in the treatment of seasonal affective disorder (winter depression), and to analyze its effects in a series of clinical trials starting from 1988. Read my story (www.frontiersin.org/image/A_light_story/769). As a hobby I take photos of light and study how light falls on and take place in the landscape. So far, I have published 310+ peer-reviewed original scientific articles as well as 60+ review articles, in addition to book chapters. I have edited 2 scientific books on seasonal affective disorder (in English) for Oxford University Press, the first edition of which was awarded the First Prize of British Medical Association Medical Book Competition in Mental Health Category in 2002. I have written 5 popular science books (in Finnish). Currently, I am Section Editor (Psychiatry) in the editorial board of Annals of Medicine, for which I have acted since 1996. I am in the editorial board for the textbook of psychiatry, with 17 editions, which has been used in the university level education since 1999. Earlier, I worked as Clinical Assistant Professor of Psychiatry at the Helsinki University Central Hospital. Currently, I am Associate Professor (Title of Docent) of Psychiatry at the University of Helsinki, and I work as Research Professor in the Mental Health team at the Finnish National Institute for Health and Welfare (THL), Finland. My research activities are focused on the routinely emerging fluctuations in mood and behavior as seen, e.g., in winter blues and suicide mortality. My research project was elected as one of the 10 success stories in health sciences by the Academy of Finland in 2012. To deliver new measures for suicide prevention and health promotion, my goal is to answer to the research question: What mechanisms do contribute to deepening of the depressive episode during spring, to recurrence of winter depression, and to progression of chronotype toward eveningness after puberty?
I focus my research activities on mental health and the seasonal changes in mood and behavior, as in winter depression, as well as the circadian clocks and chronotype. My other activities include a national task force for the updated Current Care Guidelines for the treatment of insomnia and another one for suicide prevention. My research goals are to have answers to the following two questions: To what extent and with which mechanisms the light-dark transitions or the warm-cold gradients contribute to deepening of a depressive episode and the spring peak in suicide mortality? What are the mechanisms with which the metabolic, cell-division, circadian and sleep-wake cycles link and contribute to mood?
I worked as the full-time head of unit at the National Institute for Health and Welfare, Finland, together with research associates whose most recent number was 26 and of whom 15 were post-doc scientists (12 medical doctors, 2 biologists, 1 psychologist) and 11 were PhD students (8 medical doctors, 2 biologists, 1 psychologist). The unit had three main research areas: mood, depression, and suicidal behavior.
My research activities were focused on the routinely emerging fluctuations in mood and behavior, the chronotype, and their significance to mental health and somatic health at population level, as assessed with two nationwide population-based health examination studies in Finland in 2000 and 2007. Other activities were contributions to research and development of treatment for mood and sleep disorders, and a revision of the suicide prevention recommendations that were based on a national suicide prevention project.
My key interest was to study the effects of environmental factors (light), health-related behaviors (physical activity, dietary intake and sleeping habits) and endogenous factors (genes) on the phenotype of mood. My goal was to analyze the routinely emerging fluctuations in mood and behavior, as seen in winter blues and suicide mortality, and their significance to mental health. My research project on the molecular mechanisms of bipolar and recurrent depressive disorders with the seasonal pattern was elected as one of the ten success stories in health sciences by the Academy of Finland in 2012.
My research activities were focused on the routinely emerging fluctuations in mood and behavior, as seen in winter blues and suicide mortality, and on their significance to mental health at population level, as assessed with a nationwide population-based health examination study in Finland in 2000. Other activities were contributions to research and development of treatment for seasonal affective disorder.
After having organized the field work for collection of data from a population-based and family-based study samples with the focus on schizophrenia and bipolar disorder, I continued with working on the genetic etiology of bipolar disorder, for which I had a grant from the Academy of Finland for 2003-2006.
I organized the field work for collection of data from population-based and family-based study samples known as THL psychiatric family collections with the focus on schizophrenia and bipolar disorder (please, see https://thl.fi/en/our-services/thl-biobank1/thl-biobank-datasets-and-samples).
I participated as clinical lecturer in teaching of medical students taking their undergraduate course of psychiatry, and I organized the weekly meetings of continuous medical education at the Department of Psychiatry. I was awarded as Teacher of the Year, Department of Psychiatry, University of Helsinki, in 1997.
I worked as a senior psychiatrist taking care of patients admitted to the outpatient settings of the Department of Psychiatry, Helsinki University Central Hospital.