This interview is with Clinical Medicine: Endocrinology and Diabetes editorial board member Dr Carl-Johan Anders Törnhage.

Clinical Medicine: Endocrinology and Diabetes is an open access journal published by Libertas Academica. Editor in Chief Dr Victor Gault has recently issued a call for papers.

What is the primary focus of your research?

I look for the use of salivary cortisol estimations in different psychoscial and stress situations in infants, children and adults.

For instance "The teenage stress Study in Skaraborg" - which is a three year longitudinal study of physical, psychological development from 14-17 years of age and estiamtion of salivary cortisol in the morning.Another is to study the pre- peri and postoperative stress in 4- 10 years old children during minor surgery and the importance of the type of care and anaestesiological method.

We also look for the effect of tactile stimulation or music therapy in adults with Parkinson´s disease during 9 months follow up.

We are planning a longitudinal study of the effects of the global economic crisis just now on the children, teachers and parents and compare to previous studies from the late 1980ths and 1990ths. Another is to look for the consequences for multi-handicapped children with severe disturbances to communicate with the personal during hospital care in a surgical daycare unit before and after different interventions to minimize the disturbance and stress.

What are the most exciting developments arising from current research in your area?

The simple use of sampling saliva for cortisol analysis for an objective view of the more pronounced stress in life even for the smallest infants, children and their parents at home, in school or during different activities outside hospital.

Who are your main collaborators? Please describe your work with them.

My main collaborators are psychologists,nursers,social workers- reseachers in differnet parts of Sweden.In the study in adults with parkinson´s disease I collaborate with specialist in gerontology, neurology, physiotherapeuts specialized in structural tactile massage and specialized nurses in PD.

How did you come to be working in your research area?

In the late 1980ths and early 90ths I worked in the Department of Pediatrics in the University Hospital of Umeå, Sweden. Here I met collegaues interested in salivary cortisol research in adults. I was invited to participate and started my own research in schoolchildren resulting in reference values for healthy children. Later on we even have studied children with chronic reccurent abdominal pain of non-somatic origin. After that period I have been invited to a lot of different groups and projects.

What do you think about the development of open access publishing? Have you published in an open access journal? What motivated you to do so?

I think it is a complement to the other journals and books.It is good with fast and short publication procedures but most important is to have a high quality.

This year I have published in an open access journal. It was a case-report about a severe adverse drugreaction with liver failure in a small children not reported before.

What articles and/or books have you published recently?

• Drug, Healthcare and Patient Safety Severe hepatotoxic adverse reaction in a healthy schoolgirl after treatment with flucloxacillin C-J Törnhage, G Brunlöf, S M Wallerstedt Published Date March 2009

• Törnhage C-J. Salivary Cortisol for Assessment of Hypothalamic-Pituitary-Adrenal Axis Function. Special Issue on Neuroimmunomodulation in Asthma: Focus on the HPA Axis, 2009.

Further information about Dr Törnhage:

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