Mission

The Osher Center at Karolinska Institutet aims to promote health and to counteract disease through the development and integration of evidence-based knowledge from different disciplines and traditions to complement established medicine. Rigorous scientific methods are applied to evaluate mechanisms, treatment effects, efficiency, and use in society.

At the Osher Center for Integrative Health, psychobiological perspectives are applied to investigate determinants of physical and mental well-being. The research is focused on basic science with emphasis on mechanisms for placebo, pain experience and self-rated health. Applied research on treatment may also occur, mainly focused on diffuse sickness symptoms such as pain.

All patient care is performed within research projects, and the center has no clinical practice of its own.

Ongoing research includes:

Regulation of pain; Subjective health decisions; Placebo exploring the mechanisms beyond consciousness; Acupuncture, placebo and alternative treatments; Acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT) for chronic pain; Treatment of comorbid insomnia; Sleep and upper respiratory tract infections; Neuroimmune communication; Neuroimmune communication

The Osher Center at Karolinska Institutet was created in 2005, with support from The Bernard Osher Foundation.

Website: https://ki.se/en/research/osher-center-for-integrative-medicine-ocim