News - Page 3

Treatment for a substance use disorder can be challenging, whether residential or outpatient. Having a social network that provides emotional and functional support and that specifically supports abstinence can be vital to staying in treatment. 

The Norwegian Offender Mental Health and Addiction Study (NORMA), led by Anne Bukten of SERAF/OUS, is one of the largest surveys in the world. 

The North American opioid epidemic began with over-prescription of the powerful pain medication oxycodone for chronic non-cancer pain.

The NORMA research group at SERAF (Norwegian Offender Mental Health and Addiction Study) looked at how prisoners changed various health-related behaviors during incarceration, in the absence of specific interventions.

In a recent ambulance study, 1054 non-fatal opioid overdoses in central Oslo were examined to understand if opening hours at a safe injection facility affected these overdoses, and what role the overdose location may have on severity and ambulance transport.  

Does being lonely after completing alcohol treatment make you more likely to relapse? This is one of the questions discussed by SERAF researcher Ley Muller and colleagues from the University of Southern Denmark in a new qualitative paper published in Alcoholism Treatment Quarterly.

In a new article published in Addiction, researchers from SERAF and FHI examined possession and use of naloxone following the implementation of a large-scale naloxone distribution program.

A Nordic expert group has published a review of treatment options and recommendations for individuals dependent on prescription opioid pain medications.

SERAF and ProLAR have published the first scientific article that reports patient satisfaction and side effects of all three OMT medications, from a survey answered by more than 1,000 patients. ProLAR designed and implemented the survey, and SERAF helped analyze the data.

Victimization was associated with symptoms of poor mental health, more serious substance use and unstable housing.

In the 12-week, open-label, randomized-controlled study, 159 patients with opioid dependence were randomized to treatment with either extended-release naltrexone or buprenorphine-naloxone, following detoxification.

A new article from the NorComt study at SERAF examine how patients are doing one year after starting in treatment and investigate the impact of abstinent networks.

In a systematic review of all quality of life questionnaires used among opioid users in the last 25 years, researchers found out that the questionnaires were rarely adapted to this particular group.

Overdose death is the most common cause of death after release from prison among Norwegian prisoners. The increased risk of overdose death starts immediately after release.

As part of large randomized control trial of exercise within alcohol treatment in Denmark, SERAF contributed to a qualitative analysis of the reasons why some participants dropped out.

As part of the National Overdose Strategy, researchers at SERAF have developed and implemented a multi-site naloxone distribution program. There were over 2,000 naloxone nasal sprays distributed in the project’s first year and a half, with the majority of those reaching people known to be at risk of overdosing.

In collaboration with Bergen Ambulance Services, researchers at SERAF analyzed patient data for 463 overdoses from 2012 to 2013. Cases were included if the victim responded to naloxone, the opioid overdose antidote, indicating an opioid overdose.

In a survey of 2,793 young adults twins, researchers at the Norwegian Institute of Public Health in cooperation with researchers from the University of Virginia and SERAF, have investigated the heritability of cannabis abuse disorders and psychosis.

In the third article published in the NorComt study - the Norwegian cohort of patients in opioid maintenance and other drug treatment (OMT) - we administered a newly created quality of life instrument (QOL10) to a subset of patients, one year after they began outpatient OMT or inpatient treatment.

In a large national register study, SERAF-researchers investigated prescribing of benzodiazepines to more than 30,000 Danish drug users in connection with treatment admission.

SERAF has been part of a strong international research consortium that investigated the relationship between alcohol consumption and the risk for injury. Results show that the risk of experiencing injury due to violence increased with level of alcohol exposure of the victim.

In a review article in the American journal Current Opinion in Psychiatry Jørgen G. Bramness and Eline B. Rognli summarizes recent years' research literature on (meth) amphetamine and psychosis.

A study on crime among substance users was recently published from the NorCOMT-project at SERAF. More than 500 patients starting in-patient treatment or opioid maintenance treatment (OMT) were interviewed about their life situation in the last 6 months before treatment-start.

Cultural challenges are no obstacle for SERAF’s resident statistician Stefania Salvatore. The Italian Phd-candidate came to SERAF and Oslo to contribute in a large European waste water project, and has now made the Norwegian capital her home.

In a newly published SERAF-paper; “Utilizing a train-the-trainer model for multi-site naloxone distribution programs”, experiences from the Norwegian naloxone pilot program on training staff members in naloxone distribution to drug users are shared.