Bengt B. Arnetz, MD, PhD, MPH, MScEpi
barnetz@med.wayne.edu


Departmental Role

Dr. Arnetz holds an M.D. and Ph.D. from the Karolinska Institute, Stockholm, Sweden. In addition, he holds an M.P.H. as well as an MScEpi from the Harvard School of Public Health, Boston, MA. Dr. Arnetz is certified by the American Board of Preventive Medicine in Occupational and Environmental Health, and By the Swedish Board on Health and Welfare (Socialstyrelsen) in both Occupational and Environmental Health and Community Health. He is also certified by the American Board of Independent Medical Examiners.

Dr. Arnetz is an accomplished researcher focusing on individual, behavioral, social, and environmental determinants of trauma and stress-related disorders and means to combat such disorders by enhancing individual and community resiliency and adaptive coping style.

Stress, Health, and Performance in High Risk Professions
A major area of Dr. Arnetz' research interests targets sustained stress, health, and performance among First Responders, including police, military, coast guard, and EMS. He is involved in comparative studies of US and Swedish First Responders. Dr. Arnetz is leading pioneering research as to the efficacy of imagery-based skills and stress management training in inner-city police officers. First Responders are known to at a dramatically increased risk to be exposed to major professional trauma and stressors. Still, research to date has focused on the efficacy of treatment following trauma exposure, or after First Responders has already developed stress-related disorders, rather than trying to prevent it in the first case.

Pre and Post-Displacement Stress and Resiliency Factors Among Refugees and Immigrants
Another area of major interest of Dr. Arnetz' is the impact of pre and post-displacement trauma and stressors on the health and productivity of refugees as compared to immigrants in their new host country. He is especially interested in the mitigating role of post-displacement institutional and occupational resources for mental health, and social functioning.

Leadership and Organizational Determinants of Productive and Healthy Workplaces
Dr. Arnetz leads a series of studies on the relationship between organizational climate, health and productivity in knowledge and service organizations. With an ever increasing focus on organizational change and productivity, there is an urgent need to identify means to attenuate counter-productive employee stress and disengagement in order to foster healthy and productive workplaces.

The Biological Side of Strain and Social Injustice
Another area of interest is the biological mechanisms linking social strain and injustice to disease processes. Health disparity research still suffers from a lack of in-depth understanding of biological mechanisms linking social and environmental exposures to important public health disorders. Dr. Arnetz is currently studying real-time ("as it happens") cardiovascular reactions to our psychosocial environments in a collaborative project involving both life sciences researchers and computer scientists. A better understanding of the biological mechanisms would enhance our efforts to design effective interventions, and, ultimately, decrease health disparities.

Hookah (Water pipe) Smoking
Hookah smoking is increasingly popular among the country's adolescents. Little is known about individual, behavioral, and environmental risk factors for and consequences of hookah use. Dr. Arnetz and his team are studying hookah use among adolescents and its trajectory into other gateway and heavier drugs as well as risky behavior.

A general theme of all of Dr. Arnetz research is a strong commitment to translationary research and participatory-based prospectively controlled intervention research.

Education

Training and Experience

St. Gorans Hospital (part of the Capio Group), Stockholm, Sweden. Internship (1983-85)

Harvard School of Public Health, Boston, MA Residency training in Occupational and Environmental Medicine (1986-88)

Karolinska Hospital, Stockholm, Sweden Residency training in Occupational and Environmental Medicine (1991-93), to comply with Swedish training requirements

The Swedish National Institute of Occupational Health. Post-graduate training in Clinical Occupational Medicine. Certificate in Clinical Occupational Medicine (1994-95)

The Swedish National Institute for Psychosocial Factors and Health (IPM). Research Associate, Department of Work, Environment, and Health, Stockholm, Sweden (1981-86)

The Swedish National Institute for Psychosocial Factors and Health (IPM). Professor (tenured), Director, Department of Health Care Environments and Health.

Uppsala University. Professor (tenured), Chair, Division of Community/Social Medicine;  and Director, Department of Environmental Stress Disorders (CEOS), Uppsala Academic Hospital, Uppsala, Sweden (1998-2005)

Wayne State University School of Medicine. Professor (tenured), Director, Division of Occupational and Environmental Health, Department of Family Medicine and Public Health Sciences, Detroit, MI, USA (2005 - current)

Primary Research Interests

Stress medicine: diagnosis, treatment, resiliency, and prevention

Individual, behavioral, environmental, and biological determinants of health disparity

Sustained performance among individuals and organizations

Wireless technologies and health: Impact on neurocognition, hormones, immunology, and sleep

Hookah (water pipe) smoking and its trajectory to heavier drug and risky behavior in adolescents

Selected Publications

Arnetz JE, Winblad U, Hoglund AT, Lindahl B, Spångberg K, Wallentin L, Wang Y, Ager J, Arnetz BB. Is patient involvement during hospitalization for acute myocardial infarction associated with post-discharge treatment outcome? An exploratory study. Health Expectations. 2009; in press.

Lucas T, Lakey B, Alexander S, Arnetz BB. Individuals and illnesses as sources of perceived preventability. Psychol Health Med. 2009;14:322-330.

Arnetz BB, Nevedal DC, Lumley MA, Backman L, Lublin A. Trauma resiliency training for police: psychophysiological and performance effects. Journal of Police and Criminal Psychology. 2009;24:1-9.

Wiholm C, Lowden A, Kuster N, Hillert L, Arnetz BB, Akerstedt T, Moffat SD. Mobile phone exposure and spatial memory. Bioelectromagnetics. 2009;30:59-65.

Jamil H, Ventimiglia M, Makki H, Arnetz BB. Mental health and treatment response among Iraqi refugees as compared to other non-war exposed Arab immigrants. A pilot study in Southeast Michigan. Journal of Immigrant and Refugee Studies. 2009; Accepted.

Jamil H, Ventimiglia M, Mahmoud R, Arnetz BB. Somatic and psychiatric disorders and health care utilization among Iraqi refugees and Yemeni immigrant. The New Iraqi Journal of Medicine. 2009;5:14-22.

Arnetz BB, Hamdan TA, Grzybowski M, Severson R, Shukri W, Jamil H. War-related mental health disorders among Iraqis 10 years after the 1991 Gulf War: A comparative study of soldiers and civilians living under sustained socio-environmental stress. The New Iraqi Journal of Medicine. 2009;5:9-21.

Schell E, Theorell T, Hasson D, Arnetz BB, Saraste H. Impact of a Web-Based Stress Management and Health Promotion Program on Neck-Shoulder-Back Pain in Knowledge Workers? 12 Month Prospective Controlled Follow-Up. J Occup Environ Med. 2008;50:667-676.

Hillert L, Akerstedt T, Lowden A, Wiholm C, Kuster N, Ebert S, Boutry C, Moffat SD, Berg M, Arnetz BB. The effects of 884 MHz GSM wireless communication signals on headache and other symptoms: an experimental provocation study. Bioelectromagnetics. 2008;29:185-96.

Dunn PM, Arnetz BB, Christensen JF, Homer L. Meeting the imperative to improve physician well-being: Assessment of an innovative program. J Gen Intern Med. 2007;22:1544-1552.

Branth S, Ronquist G, Stridsberg M, Hambraeus L, Kindgren E, Olsson R, Carlander D, Arnetz BB. Development of abdominal fat and incipient metabolic syndrome in young healthy men exposed to long-term stress. Nutr MetabCardiovasc Dis. 2007;17:427-435.

Current Funded Research

Active National/International Grants and Contracts

PI: B Arnetz (FTE 0.30)
Imagery-based trauma-resiliency training for urban police.
1R34MH086943-0

NIH/NIMH
09-12
$679,718

PI: B Arnetz (FTE 0.20)
Professionally induced stress among first responders. Phase 1.
Royal Foundation of Sweden (Kungafonden). Acct. # 440306
06-09
$75,865

PI: B Arnetz (FTE 0.20)
Professionally induced stress among first responders. Phase 2: Prevalence, risk and resiliency factors based on a nationally representative sample.
Royal Foundation of Sweden (Kungafonden). Acct. # pending
09-11
$135,000

Active Other Grants and Contracts

PI: B Arnetz
Sustained health and performance among athletes
Wayne State University Research Stimulation Award. Acct. # 177141
07-09
$20,000

Co-I: B Arnetz (T. Lucas, PI, L. Thompson Co-I)
Wayne State University:  Research Enhancement Program-Urban Research
Policy, Psychology and Immigrant Employment in Urban Environments
9/1/2009-11/1/2010
$42,000 x 1 year

Co-I: B Arnetz, FTE 0.065 (J Arnetz, PI, P Lichtenberg Co-I, M. Luborsky Co-I)
Organizational Climate, Patient Safety Culture and Quality of Nursing Home Care
Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan Foundation - Investigator Initiated Research Program
01/01/10-12/31/11
$150,000

Co-I: B Arnetz (J Arnetz PI)
Domestic Violence among Iraqi Immigrant & Refugee Women in Sweden and the U.S.
Sodertalje Municipality, subcontract with Uppsala University
04/01/10-08/31/11
$30,872