[The history of the laboratory at Dikemark hospital]

The laboratory was modestly founded in 1924 by Rolv Gjessing, MD. The aims were to apply clinical chemistry and pathophysiology in the examination of psychiatric patients, and undertake psychosomatic research. Using these means, Gjessing made thorough studies of patients with periodic catatonia. He is considered the founder of biologic psychiatry and the founder of psychiatric chemistry. Rolf Gjessing's son, Professor Leiv Gjessing, who succeeded his father in 1959, expanded the laboratory's scientific and practical activities. In addition to profound follow-up studies of periodic catatonia, he has studied new and important problems within psychiatry and related subjects. In 1986 the laboratory was transformed into the Research Institute for Neuro-Psychiatry, with the medical scientist Lars Mørkrid as head. The institution, in the light of its results and broad scientific contact and cooperation, is a unique medical institution in Norway with an international reputation.