
Jim van Os (born 1960) is a Dutch academic and psychiatrist. He is Professor of Psychiatry at
Utrecht University
Utrecht University (UU; , formerly ''Rijksuniversiteit Utrecht'') is a public university, public research university in Utrecht, Netherlands. Established , it is one of the oldest universities in the Netherlands. In 2023, it had an enrollment of ...
and medical manager of the Brain Center at
UMC Utrecht, the
Netherlands
, Terminology of the Low Countries, informally Holland, is a country in Northwestern Europe, with Caribbean Netherlands, overseas territories in the Caribbean. It is the largest of the four constituent countries of the Kingdom of the Nether ...
.
Career
Van Os studied medicine in
Amsterdam
Amsterdam ( , ; ; ) is the capital of the Netherlands, capital and Municipalities of the Netherlands, largest city of the Kingdom of the Netherlands. It has a population of 933,680 in June 2024 within the city proper, 1,457,018 in the City Re ...
, psychiatry in
Jakarta
Jakarta (; , Betawi language, Betawi: ''Jakartè''), officially the Special Capital Region of Jakarta (; ''DKI Jakarta'') and formerly known as Batavia, Dutch East Indies, Batavia until 1949, is the capital and largest city of Indonesia and ...
,
Casablanca
Casablanca (, ) is the largest city in Morocco and the country's economic and business centre. Located on the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic coast of the Chaouia (Morocco), Chaouia plain in the central-western part of Morocco, the city has a populatio ...
,
Bordeaux
Bordeaux ( ; ; Gascon language, Gascon ; ) is a city on the river Garonne in the Gironde Departments of France, department, southwestern France. A port city, it is the capital of the Nouvelle-Aquitaine region, as well as the Prefectures in F ...
, and
London
London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...
, and subsequently
epidemiology
Epidemiology is the study and analysis of the distribution (who, when, and where), patterns and Risk factor (epidemiology), determinants of health and disease conditions in a defined population, and application of this knowledge to prevent dise ...
at the
London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine
The London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine (LSHTM) is a public university, public research university in Bloomsbury, central London, and a constituent college, member institution of the University of London that specialises in public hea ...
.
He was formerly Professor of Psychiatry, Chair of the Department of Psychiatry and Psychology, and Director of Psychiatric Services at the
Maastricht University
Maastricht University (abbreviated as UM; ) is a public university, public research university in Maastricht, Netherlands. Founded in 1976, it is the second youngest of the thirteen List of universities in the Netherlands, Dutch universities.
In ...
Medical Center. He is currently Professor of Psychiatry with a focus on psychiatric epidemiology and public mental health and medical manager of the Brain Center at Utrecht University Medical Centre, as well as visiting professor and fellow at the
Institute of Psychiatry
The Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology & Neuroscience (IoPPN) is a centre for mental health and neuroscience research, education and training in Europe. It is dedicated to understanding, preventing and treating mental illness, neurological co ...
,
King's College London
King's College London (informally King's or KCL) is a public university, public research university in London, England. King's was established by royal charter in 1829 under the patronage of George IV of the United Kingdom, King George IV ...
,
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Northwestern Europe, off the coast of European mainland, the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotlan ...
.
In 2011 he was elected a member of the
Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences
The Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences (, KNAW) is an organization dedicated to the advancement of science and literature in the Netherlands. The academy is housed in the Trippenhuis in Amsterdam.
In addition to various advisory a ...
, and in 2023, of the
Koninklijke Hollandsche Maatschappij der Wetenschappen
The ''Koninklijke Hollandsche Maatschappij der Wetenschappen'' (Royal Holland Society of Sciences and Humanities), located on the east side of the Spaarne in downtown Haarlem, Netherlands, was established in 1752 and is the oldest society for the ...
. Since 2014 he has been listed in the
Thomson Reuters
Thomson Reuters Corporation ( ) is a Canadian multinational corporation, multinational content-driven technology Conglomerate (company), conglomerate. The company was founded in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, and maintains its headquarters at 1 ...
Web of Science
The Web of Science (WoS; previously known as Web of Knowledge) is a paid-access platform that provides (typically via the internet) access to multiple databases that provide reference and citation data from academic journals, conference proceedi ...
list of "the world’s most influential scientific minds of our time". He is on the editorial board of several major psychiatric journals, including
Acta Psychiatrica Scandinavica,
European Psychiatry
''European Psychiatry'' is a peer-reviewed open-access medical journal published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of the European Psychiatric Association of which it is an official journal. It covers all aspects of psychiatry. According to t ...
,
Psychological Medicine
''Psychological Medicine'' is a peer-reviewed medical journal in the field of psychiatry and related aspects of psychology and basic sciences. According to the ''Journal Citation Reports'', the journal has a 2020 impact factor of 7.723.
History ...
,
Schizophrenia Research, and
Schizophrenia Bulletin
''Schizophrenia Bulletin'' is a peer-reviewed medical journal which covers research relating to the etiology and treatment of schizophrenia. The journal is published bimonthly by Oxford University Press in association with the Maryland Psychiatri ...
, additionally serving as an academic editor for
PLOS One. He also served on the psychosis group for the
DSM-5
The ''Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fifth Edition'' (DSM-5), is the 2013 update to the '' Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders'', the taxonomic and diagnostic tool published by the American Psychiat ...
Task Force. His colleagues have voted him "best psychiatrist in the Netherlands" multiple times. In 2023 van Os received the Lifetime Achievement Award of the
Schizophrenia International Research Society.
Arguments that "schizophrenia" does not exist and mental health service transformation project
In 2009, van Os proposed the retirement of the diagnosis, schizophrenia, citing its lack of validity and the risk of
fundamental attribution error
In social psychology, the fundamental attribution error is a cognitive attribution bias in which observers underemphasize situational and environmental factors for the behavior of an actor while overemphasizing dispositional or personality fac ...
associated with the label. The label "schizophrenia" could cause difficulties on the clinician's part in communicating with the diagnosed person, due to erroneous preconceptions associated with the label.
In its place, van Os proposed a broad and general syndromal definition, more suited to personal diagnosis, which would reduce
attribution error.
He cited previous work by other researchers that explains psychosis as
aberrant salience
Salience (also called saliency, from Latin ''saliō'' meaning “leap, spring”) is the property by which some thing stands out. Salient events are an attentional mechanism by which organisms learn and survive; those organisms can focus their l ...
regulation.
In 2014 he explained his views in a
TED talk
TED Conferences, LLC (Technology, Entertainment, Design) is an American-Canadian non-profit media organization that posts international talks online for free distribution under the slogan "Ideas Change Everything" (previously "Ideas Worth Sprea ...
.
In 2015 he co-authored an article in a national newspaper, suggesting that "schizo-labels" be abandoned and replaced with more scientific and patient-friendly terminology. The following week, his colleagues Rene Kahn, Iris Sommer, and Damiaan Denys published a counter-article, labeling Van Os and his colleagues as "antipsychiatrists".
In 2016 he published an editorial in the
BMJ
''The BMJ'' is a fortnightly peer-reviewed medical journal, published by BMJ Publishing Group Ltd, which in turn is wholly-owned by the British Medical Association (BMA). ''The BMJ'' has editorial freedom from the BMA. It is one of the world' ...
arguing that
disease classifications should drop the concept of schizophrenia, as it is an unhelpful description of symptoms. This was followed by an article in 2018 i
Psychological Medicine describing the slow death of the concept of schizophrenia and the painful birth of the psychosis spectrum, and a related 2021 article i
Frontiers in Psychiatry on the waiting for the Funeral of “Schizophrenia” and the Baby Shower of the Psychosis Spectrum.
In 2021, he argued, in an article i
Schizophrenia Research that the term "Schizophrenia" can be seen as a symptom of psychiatry's reluctance to enter the moral era of medicine.
Since 2020, van Os, together with colleague Prof. Philippe Delespaul, has been working on setting up social trials in the context of mental health service transformation according to the principle of a ''Mental Health Ecosystem'', as described in the book
We Are Not God, which he wrote together with Myrrhe van Spronsen, and the book
Kopzorgen: Understanding Psychosis In 33 Questions, which he wrote with Stijn Vanheule.
Partial bibliography
*
*
*
*
*
* Tamminga, C., Sirovatka, P., Regier, D.A. & Van Os, J. (2010) Deconstructing Psychosis: Refining the Research Agenda for DSM-V (Arlington, Virginia, American Psychiatric Association).
* Groot, P.C. & van Os, J. (2021) "Tapering Medication (Tapering Strips) as a Necessary Tool for a Meaningful Conversation in the Doctor’s Office" (pp. 259–285). In: P. Lehmann & C. Newnes (eds.), ''Withdrawal from Prescribed Psychotropic Drugs''. , , . Berlin / Lancaster: Peter Lehmann Publishing.
* van Os J, Guloksuz S, Vijn TW, Hafkenscheid A, Delespaul P. The evidence-based group-level symptom-reduction model as the organizing principle for mental health care: time for change? World Psychiatry. 2019;18:88-96.
References
External links
Psychosis research at Maastricht Universityby Jim van Os and Philippe Delespaul
Research on cannabis
{{DEFAULTSORT:Os, Jim van
1960 births
Living people
Dutch psychiatrists
Dutch public health doctors
Academics of King's College London
Fellows of King's College London
Cannabis researchers
Academic staff of Maastricht University
Members of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences
Schizophrenia researchers