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FRIMEDBIO-Fri prosj.st. med.,helse,biol

Improving the monitoring, treatment and prevention of population drug abuse

Alternativ tittel: Narkotikaproblemer - omfang, preventive tiltak og behandling

Tildelt: kr 9,6 mill.

Ulovlige rusmidler er en sentral folkehelseutfordring og en av de ti viktigste årsakene til død og sykdom i Norge, men utfordringen er krevende: de som bruker ulovlige rusmidler er først og fremst synlige i registerdata dersom de ikke ønsker eller evner å holde bruken sin skjult, vi vet lite om hvilke behandlinger som virker bedre og dårligere enn andre, og kriminalisering av bruk er fremdeles en sentral forebyggingsstrategi til tross for manglende evidens. Vi tar sikte på å utvide kunnskapsgrunnlaget på tre områder ved å kombinere nye statistiske tilnærminger og administrative registerdata: 1. utvikle og vurdere ulike metoder for å anslå størrelsen på skjulte brukergrupper og hvordan disse endrer seg over tid, 2. sammenligne pasientutfall i etterkant av ulike typer rusbehandling 3. undersøke i hvilken grad politi-innsats mot bruk og besittelse predikerer langsiktige utfall for behandlede ungdomskull

Illegal drugs form a top-ten cause of death and disability in Norway, which especially reflects the raised mortality risks of at-risk users of opioids. Data on drug use and harms are scarce, with criminal justice and health system data capturing only those unable or unwilling to hide their use. While a variety of treatment approaches are available within the Norwegian health system, the evidence base for these is often weak, and the same is true for the criminal justice approach that remains a core preventative public health strategy to reduce population harms from drug use. The project will link a large set of administrative data and employ sophisticated and cutting-edge statistical modelling techniques to address key knowledge gaps in this area. The first goal is to improve our understanding of how drug use problems are distributed across population groups and birth cohorts, and how the prevalence and risks of use (which is typically initiated in youth) changes over the lifespan as a result of death and remission (within and outside of the formal treatment system). Since we only observe a subset of those with drug problems at any age, this requires us to model the "risk of being observed" in ways that allows us to correct for how this varies systematically with age, social background etc. A second goal is to provide comparative data on how patient outcomes vary across different treatments in use for drug use and dependence, and how such treatment effects interact with support and rehabilitation programs. The focus is on ensuring comparability of estimates, using data on treatment episodes across more than a decade to avoid common small-sample issues. The final goal is to examine how variation (over time and regions) in the use of different criminal justice tools contributes to reducing serious drug-related harms by preventing use in adolescents, reducing progression to heavy or dependent use, or by helping rehabilitate those with use-related problems.

Budsjettformål:

FRIMEDBIO-Fri prosj.st. med.,helse,biol

Finansieringskilder