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Sidse Arnfred is head of the Research Unit for Psychotherapy & Psychopathology, Psychiatry West, Slagelse, Region Zealand, where the interdisciplinary research group consists of eight PhD students, four post-docs and several thesis students.

Psychotherapy Research

Since 2008, Sidse Arnfred has both clinically and research-wise focused on research in psychotherapy and recovery-oriented approaches.

In 2019, she completed TRACT-RCT, a large multicenter non-inferiority RCT within group therapy with a comparison of the American, transdiagnostic Unified Protocol with traditional cognitive therapy, which took place in Copenhagen, Aarhus and Slagelse. Data is currently being analyzed.

Different fields of research and different stages of development and research necessitates a variety of research methods. In particular, the field of psychotherapy is best developed by combining the various theoretical approaches to science. Sidse Arnfred masters both qualitative and quantitative methods and focuses on developing from scratch or importing from the international science society new research methods and new treatments.

The current projects in the research unit concern CBT for PTSD symptoms in psychotic disorders, Music Therapy, Therapeutic Assessment, Phenomenological based Art and Physical Therapy for Self-disorder, complex interventions for young people with multimorbidity, shared decision making in the treatment of diabetes and severe mental disorder, and enrichment of Unified Protocol for improved outcomes in the mental health service.

As head of Region Zealand's Theme-Based Cooperation (TBS) for anxiety, depression and personality disorder (comparable to Clinical Academic Groups, as initiated by Kings College, London, UK), she is responsible for implementing the use of Patient Related Outcome Measures (PROM) in the six psychotherapy clinics in the region. This collaboration also enables the research results to be disseminated quickly, e.g. through the implementation of Unified Protocol and symptom level measurements at each group session.

Sidse Arnfred holds national positions of trust as head of the Psychotherapy Board of the Danish Psychiatric Society and head of the national “Network for Research and Quality Assusrance in Psychotherapy” [NFKP]. In Region Zealand, she is head of psychotherapy training for specialist trainees, and she teach and supervise CBT for trainee doctors and psychologists in Region Zealand and the Capital Region.

Psychopathology Research

Sidse Arnfred's first research, ie PhD and doctoral dissertation, was about cognitive electrophysiology, so-called Event Related Potentials (ERPs) in schizophrenia spectrum disorders. In several of the works, she collaborated with COMPUTE, the Technical University of Denmark, to use new advanced algorithms to analyze the electrophysiological data. For a short period, she was responsible for a large project at the Danish Agricultural University of using Göttingen Minigrise in an animal model for schizophrenia.

Sidse Arnfred is a member of the research council of Steno Diabetes Center Sjælland (SDCS) and when it was established in 2019, she initiated a Psyche & Soma research network with Slagelse Hospital founded on SDCS Center Psychiatry and the newly established Fusion Clinic for patients with severe mental illness and diabetes, which is growing rapidly.

Her current projects focus on dimensional psychopathology, self-disorder, fatigue, and the association between negative affectivity and the gut microbiome, and experienced distress among patients with severe mental illness and diabetes. Moreover, emerging projects investigate ERPs as markers of particular psychopathology in youth with autism spectrum disorder, adults with OCD, and adults with depression and chronic physical conditions.

Medical Education

As a post-graduate clinical associate professor, Sidse Arnfred has the academic responsibility for the education for specialists in psychiatry on Zealand, ie the education of about 60 introductory doctors and 100 main education doctors annually. In that work, Sidse Arnfred's research in medical education has meant a considerable boost. Following a survey of inadequate clinical supervision and feedback in 2018, the Regional Education Board set up a Task Force, led by the Deputy Medical Directors in Psychiatry, which ensures that specialist trainees receive the prescribed clinical training. She has initiated training courses in structured clinical observation for clinical supervisors.

In relation to the medical students, the research is focused on clinical skills: To be able to give an objective description of the patient’s mental status and to be able to talk to patients who has mental difficulties. During the Corona shutdown, Sidse Arnfred was e-course leader, where she has been responsible for running webinars, creating a special e-course with videos of authentic patients, and individual coaching of faculty teachers.

Teaching

Sidse Arnfred lectures medical students at the University on Anxiety and Personality disorders,  Emergency Psychiatry and Medical Communication in Psychiatry. 

She is responsible for clerkship students at Psychiatry West, giving introductory tutorials, clinical tututorials and rehearsal exams. The same place, she carries out clinical exams in psychiatry, the traditional oral long case.

During Corona-crisis Sidse Arnfred was e-course leader, organizing webinars and e-learning material in psychiatry.