TK Larsen is now Ph.D.! (News story Oct 4th, 1999)

On Friday, Oct. 1st,  Tor K Larsen, M.D., defended his Ph.D. theseis; "First Episode of Non-Affective Psychosis - A Study of Conceptual and Ethical Considerations, Premorbid Functioning, Duration of Untreated Psychosis and Clinical Outcome" in public.

 As most of TK's work, this public defence was much anticipated by the academic community working in this area as well as others with interests in TK's thesis. Both trial lectures and the defence took place in Oslo, and the defence session practically filled Auditorim 1209 in the Lab building of Ullevål Sykehus. Both the candidate and (at least one of) the oppsition had their sleepless nights prior to the event, but TK's defence was elegant and flawless, and the event evolved into the kind of academic meeting between skilled professionals that it is meant to be.

Due to the special circumstances, the defence was conducted by the Dean of the Institute of Medicine, University of Oslo himself. First Opponent was Prof. Gunnar Götestam (M.D., Ph.D.). Second Opponent was Prof. Alv A. Dahl (M.D., Ph.D.). The evalutation committee was  Prof. Gunnar Götestam (M.D., Ph.D.), Prof. Bjørn Rishovd Rund (Ph.D.) and Prof. Alv A. Dahl (M.D., Ph.D.).

Stavanger Aftenblad wrote about the event on Oct 2nd:

"Patients with psychosis must have treatment sooner.

Early discovery of psychosis is important, and early treatment can improve outcome of the treatment in individuals who develop serious psychical conditions. This is evident from the thesis presented by Tor K Larsen from Stavanger, who defended his M.D. thesis in public at the University of Oslo yesterday. Larsen is a medical doctor at Rogaland Psychiatric Hospital and research scientist in the TIPS project.

Larsens doctoral thesis Larsen concerns patients with psychosis where the treatment starts late. The study covers patients with their first first episode of psychosis arriving Rogaland Psychiatric Hospital in the period 1993-1994.

The study shows that patients that receive treatment after longer duration of psychosis have clearer symptoms of an active psychosis one year after onset of treatment than patients that receive treatment after shorter duration of psychosis."

The study supports the ideas of early intervention and short duration of untreated psychosis as success factors for clinical outcome.