Anders Sørensen
Nordic Cochrane Centre, Denmark
Biography
Anders Sørensen is a Clinical Psychologist and Researcher at Cochrane Collaboration, has recently (article underway) scrutinized the research literature on psychiatric drug withdrawal. He is working in close collaboration with the psychiatrists, doctors and pharmacists considered experts in the field, providing him with medical knowledge which, in combination with his background in clinical psychology, enables him to help long-term psychiatric patients withdraw and reach a medicine-free life. By his experience, this transition is without exception always beneficial when done in the right way, at the right pace and with the appropriate psychotherapeutic help, which primarily centers on teaching emotion regulation skills, the lack of which makes the sedated, drug-induced state emotionally attractive. He never uses the diagnostic system, but consistently evaluates his patients’ wellbeing (or the lack thereof) by in-depth interviews on the goals and values that matter to the patient, formally measured as quality of life; which improves after withdrawal.
Abstract
Abstract : Psychiatric drug withdrawal: A psychotherapeutic affair