Karen-Inge Karstoft

Karen-Inge Karstoft is an Associate Professor in the Department of Psychology at the University of Copenhagen's Faculty of Social Sciences. She joined the department in November 2020 after serving as a Senior Researcher at the Danish Veteran Centre's Research and Knowledge Centre. Her academic journey includes positions as an Affiliated Researcher and Part-time Lecturer at the University of Copenhagen, and Researcher and Part-time Lecturer at the University of Southern Denmark.

Dr. Karstoft earned her PhD in Psychology from the University of Southern Denmark in 2014, with a dissertation on traumatic stress reactions following military deployment. She completed her MSc in Psychology with a focus on neuropsychology and clinical psychology from the University of Copenhagen in 2010, and her BSc in Psychology from the same institution in 2007.

Her research program centers on clinical and health psychology with a specialization in trauma responses and PTSD development. She investigates how individuals react differently to trauma exposure and applies machine learning methods to predict mental health problems following trauma. Her work spans complexity science of psychopathology, comorbidity networks, veteran mental health, and refugee mental health. Dr. Karstoft's approach integrates advanced statistical methods with clinical applications to address mental health challenges in diverse populations.

Her research has been published in high-impact journals including Nature Genetics, Nature Communications, and European Journal of Psychotraumatology. Recent work focuses on Ukrainian refugees, genetic architecture of PTSD, and therapeutic interventions. She has received significant recognition including the Young Investigator Award from The Danish Psychological Association in 2019.

• Young Investigator Award from The Danish Psychological Association (2019)

Dr. Karstoft serves as Principal Investigator on multiple major grants including the DARECO cohort study, comorbidity networks research, and studies on adverse childhood experiences. She has secured funding from Carlsbergfondet and the Independent Research Fund Denmark totaling millions of Danish kroner. Her collaborative network includes partnerships with the Danish Veteran Centre and international research consortia. She teaches courses on trauma, PTSD, comorbidity diagnostics, research methods, and complexity science in clinical psychology.