Sofia Sigra Stein
Position: Doctoral Student School/office: School of Medical SciencesEmail: sofia.sigra@oru.se
Phone: No number available
Room: -
About Sofia Sigra Stein
Sofia Sigra Stein is a resident in clinical pharmacology at the University Hospital in Örebro and a PhD student at the School of Medical Sciences at Örebro University.
During med school, Sofia started her research on child- and adolescent psychiatric disorders characterized by acute-onset obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD), tics or eating disorder. These disorders are called PANDAS (Pediatric Autoimmune Neuropsychiatric Disorder Associated with Streptococcal infections) and PANS (Pediatric Acute-onset Neuropsychiatric Syndrome) and the underlying cause is assumed to lay within the immune system.
During the last decades, the theory about a connection between the immune system and some psychiatric disorders has emerged. There is evidence that an immunological vulnerability contributes to development of psychiatric disorders, such as depression, schizophrenia and OCD.
In turn, this leads to the question if treatments aimed at altering the function of the immune system could have an effect on these disorders. If this would be the case, it could potentially lead to new treatment options for this severely ill patient group.
Sofia does her research in immunopsychiatry and her PhD project evaluates the effect of immunomodulatory treatment on severe schizophrenia and OCD, where other therapies have failed. She also investigates potential biomarkers for these disorders.
Research projects
Completed projects
Publications
Articles in journals
- Bejerot, S. , Sigra, S. , Welin, E. , Eklund, D. , Hylén, U. & Humble, M. B. (2023). Rituximab as an adjunctive treatment for schizophrenia spectrum disorder or obsessive-compulsive disorder: Two open-label pilot studies on treatment-resistant patients. Journal of Psychiatric Research, 158, 319-329.
Articles, reviews/surveys
- Sigra, S. , Hesselmark, E. & Bejerot, S. (2018). Treatment of PANDAS and PANS: a systematic review. Neuroscience and Biobehavioral Reviews, 86, 51-56.
Conference papers
- Humble, M. B. , Eklund, D. , Fresnais, D. , Hylén, U. , Sigra, S. , Thunberg, P. & Bejerot, S. (2023). Rituximab for treatment-resistant schizophrenia and/or obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD): functional connectivity and cytokines associated with symptomatic improvements. In: European psychiatry. Paper presented at 31st European Congress of Psychiatry (EPA 2023), Paris, France, March 25-28, 2023. (pp. S629-S629). Cambridge University Press.