Roar Fosse

Publications (13) View all

• Article: Suicidality before and in the early phases of first episode psychosis.

  Elizabeth A Barrett, Kjetil Sundet, Ann Faerden, Ragnar Nesvåg, Ingrid Agartz, Roar Fosse, Erlend Mork, Nils Eiel Steen, Ole A Andreassen, Ingrid Melle
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  ABSTRACT: The suicide risk in psychotic disorders is highest in the early phases of illness. Studies have typically focused on suicidality from treatment start rather than actual onset of psychosis. This study explored the prevalence and characteristics of suicidality in patients with a first episode of psychosis (FEP) in two time intervals: 1) prior to study entry and 2) explicitly in the period of untreated psychosis. One hundred seventy FEP-patients were interviewed as soon as possible after treatment start. The interview included assessments of diagnoses, suicidality, symptoms, substance use, and premorbid functioning. Nearly 26% of the patients attempted suicide prior to study entry and 14% made suicide attempts during the period of untreated psychosis. Of the patients who had been suicidal (i.e. experienced suicidal ideation or attempts), 70% were suicidal during the period of untreated psychosis. Suicide attempts prior to study entry were associated with female gender, more depressive episodes, younger age at psychosis onset, and history of alcohol disorder. Suicide attempts during untreated psychosis were also associated with more depressive episodes and younger age at illness onset, in addition to drug use the last six months and longer duration of untreated psychosis (DUP). The prevalence of suicidality before and in the early phases of FEP is high, especially during untreated psychosis. As prolonged DUP is associated with suicide attempts during the period of untreated psychosis, reducing the DUP could have the effect of reducing the prevalence of suicide attempts in patients with FEP.
  Biological Psychiatry 06/2010; 119(1-3):11-7. · 8.28 Impact Factor
• Article: The mind in REM sleep: reports of emotional experience.

  R Fosse, R Stickgold, J A Hobson
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  ABSTRACT: No consensus has been reached on the characteristics of emotional experience during rapid eye movement sleep (REM). Thus, the relationship between the emotional brain activation and mental activity in REM remains unclear. Our objective is to characterize emotional experience in REM in order to facilitate understanding of brain-mind correlations in this state. We combined instrumental awakenings from REM with the subjects' own ratings of the occurrence and intensity of discrete emotion types for each line in their REM mentation reports. The study was performed in the subjects' own homes over three consecutive nights using ambulatory polysomnography. Nine normal healthy subjects, age 31-60 (mean=43.0). Awakenings 5-15 minutes into REM periods across the night. Emotions were found in 74% of 88 mentation reports, with a balanced proportion of positive and negative emotions. Among the reports scored for emotions, 14% contained one emotion and 86% contained two or more different emotion types. Joy/elation was the most frequent emotion, found in 36% of the reports, followed by surprise (24%), anger (17%), anxiety/fear (11%), and sadness (10%). Anxiety/fear was significantly less intense than joy/elation, anger, and surprise. Except for surprise, no specific emotion type changed from the first to the second half of the night. Negative emotions and surprise but not positive emotions varied significantly across subjects. The analysis of subject reports of emotions following instrumental awakenings demonstrate a balanced and widespread occurrence of both positive and negative emotions in REM sleep dreams. Emotions in REM are likely to be powerfully modulated by the neurobiological processes which differentiate REM from waking.
  Sleep 01/2002; 24(8):947-55. · 5.05 Impact Factor
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  Article: Sleep, learning, and dreams: off-line memory reprocessing.

  R Stickgold, J A Hobson, R Fosse, M Fosse
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  ABSTRACT: Converging evidence and new research methodologies from across the neurosciences permit the neuroscientific study of the role of sleep in off-line memory reprocessing, as well as the nature and function of dreaming. Evidence supports a role for sleep in the consolidation of an array of learning and memory tasks. In addition, new methodologies allow the experimental manipulation of dream content at sleep onset, permitting an objective and scientific study of this dream formation and a renewed search for the possible functions of dreaming and the biological processes subserving it.
  Science 12/2001; 294(5544):1052-7. · 31.20 Impact Factor
• Article: Brain-mind states: I. Longitudinal field study of sleep/wake factors influencing mentation report length.

  R Stickgold, A Malia, R Fosse, R Propper, J A Hobson
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  ABSTRACT: To collect and analyze reports of mental activity across sleep/wake states. Mentation reports were collected in a longitudinal design by combining our Nightcap sleep monitor with daytime experience sampling techniques. Reports were collected over 14 days and nights from active and quiet wake, after instrumental awakenings at sleep onset, and after both spontaneous and instrumental awakenings from REM and NREM sleep. All reports were collected in the normal home, work and school environments of the subjects. Subjects included 8 male and 8 female undergraduate students (19-26 years of age). N/A. A total of 1,748 reports, averaging 109 per subject, were collected from active wake across the day (n=894), from quiet wake in the pre-sleep onset period (n=58), from sleep onset (n=280), and from later REM (n=269) and nonREM (n=247) awakenings. Median report lengths varied more than 2-fold, in the order REM > active wake > quiet wake > NREM = sleep onset. The extended protocol allowed many novel comparisons between conditions. In addition, while spontaneous REM reports were longer than those from forced awakenings, the difference was explained by the time within the REM period at which the awakenings occurred. Finally, intersubject differences in REM report lengths were correlated with similar differences in waking report lengths. The use of the Nightcap sleep monitoring system along with waking experience sampling permits a more complete sampling and analysis of mental activity across the sleep/wake cycle than has been previously possible.
  Sleep 04/2001; 24(2):171-9. · 5.05 Impact Factor
• Article: Brain-mind states: reciprocal variation in thoughts and hallucinations.

  R Fosse, R Stickgold, J A Hobson
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  ABSTRACT: The exclusion of thinking from recent studies of sleep mentation has hindered a full appreciation of how cognitive activity differs across the states of waking and sleep. To overcome this limitation, this study investigated thoughts and hallucinations using experience sampling, home-based sleep-wake monitoring, and formal analyses of the psychological data. The prevalence of thoughts decreased gradually from waking through sleep onset and non-REM sleep, to reach its nadir in REM sleep, whereas hallucinations increased sharply across these states. Furthermore, multiple occurrences of hallucinations but not of thoughts increased significantly from sleep onset through non-REM sleep, to a peak in REM sleep. This reciprocity in thoughts and hallucinations might reflect a progressive shift from high to low aminergic-to-cholinergic neuromodulatory ratios across wake-sleep states, accompanied by an array of changes in the regional activation patterns of the brain.
  Psychological Science 02/2001; 12(1):30-6. · 4.43 Impact Factor