Depression is a disease that affects millions of people around the globe, and modern treatments do not help them all. Johan Lundberg is trying to find out why. Meet one of the new professors of Karolinska Institutet who will participate in this year's installation ceremony at Aula Medica on 8 October.
Text: Karin Tideström, for KI's installation ceremony booklet 2026
Johan Lundberg researches mental illnesses, depression in particular, in an attempt to improve the understanding of the biological mechanisms related to different treatments and enable more personalised care.
Depression is one of the diseases that causes the most ill-health in the world and modern treatments help by no means everyone.
"By studying the effects of different treatments on the brain, we're trying to gain a better grasp of the biology of depression and understand how to predict which treatment will benefit the individual patient," he says.
His research covers such therapies as CBT, antidepressants, ECT, ketamine and, currently, psychedelic substances like psilocybin. The findings so far include that CBT and ketamine for depression both give rise to changes in the brain's serotonin system and that ketamine and psilocybin can have an almost immediate antidepressive effect.
About Johan Lundberg
Professor of Psychiatry at the Department of Clinical Neuroscience from 1 October 2025.
Johan Lundberg was born in Upplands Väsby in 1969. He graduated with a medical degree in 1998, earned his PhD from Karolinska Institutet in 2006 and became a fully fledged psychiatrist in 2007. He combines the post of professor with that of senior physician in psychiatry at North Stockholm Psychiatry, Region Stockholm.
