bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Who “needs” compulsory care?
Authors: Wallander Lisa , Blomqvist Jan 
Published: December 2017

■ Background Due to its wide scope and the way in which it is applied, the Swedish compulsory care legislation for problem substance users is rather unique, both from an international and a Nordic perspective. Accordingly, from the time of its introduction about twenty-five years ago, the current legislation has repeatedly been criticised on ethical and scientific grounds. ■ Methods This study employs the factorial survey approach to disentangle predictors relating to assessments of eligibility for compulsory care among a sample of 205 social workers from 36 social services units. The data, which comprise social workers' ideal assessments of randomly constructed hypothetical clients, have been analysed using multilevel logistic regression. ■ Results The results show that overall, the social workers' assessments of client eligibility for compulsory care correspond well with the legislation. However, the results also reveal that several factors not specified in the legislation have an effect on these assessments. These include elements from the popular discourse on drugs in Sweden, the social workers' ideological convictions and the organisational structure of, and experiences of handling compulsory care applications at, the respondents' workplaces.
Polarisering i Alkoholkonsumtionen Bland Isländska Unga, 1995–2003
Authors: Bjarnason Thoroddur 
Published: December 2017

Aims Alcohol use among Icelandic adolescents has declined substantially in the last decade. This paper evaluates the source of this decline by examining changes in the frequency and quantity of adolescent alcohol consumption in the period 1995–2003. Data and Methods The total population of 10th grade (15–16 year old) students in Iceland was surveyed in 1995, 1999 and 2003 as part of the European School Survey Project on Alcohol and Other Drugs (ESPAD). Results The total volume of alcohol consumed by 15–16-year-old students declined by 15% between 1995 and 2003. This decline can be traced to an increasing number of abstainers. Among adolescent alcohol consumers drinking was more frequent and the total volume of alcohol they consumed increased by 19% between 1995 and 2003. Conclusion Declining alcohol use among Icelandic adolescents is due to fewer alcohol consumers and cannot be traced to less consumption by active drinkers. Adolescents who consume alcohol regularly have increased their consumption in this period.
Psychosocial interventions in drug-free treatment for opiate misuse. Conclusions from RCTs
Authors: Hesse Morten , Fridell Mats 
Published: December 2017

Background Methadone and buprenorphine are well-documented treatment options for opiate dependence, and there is substantial evidence to support adjunct psychosocial support for methadone maintenance treatment. Although drug-free treatment is preferred by a large number of patients and has considerable political support, less is known about treatment to support and maintain complete abstinence from all opiates, both illicit and prescribed. Method We conducted a review of studies of psychosocial interventions to support complete abstinence from opiates, to identify what conclusions, if any, can be drawn based on the existing literature. In total, 12 studies were identified. The quality of many studies was excellent, but follow-up was generally short, with only half the studies reporting post-treatment follow-up, and no follow-up longer than 21 months. Discussion Given that drug free treatment aims at lasting abstinence from opiates, this is a serious shortcoming of the literature. Among the few studies with post-treatment follow-up, studies using individual behaviour therapy showed little advantage over the control group with no individual behaviour therapy, and one study using behavioural family therapy showed an advantage for the experimental intervention over the standard intervention. Conclusion The limited evidence that exists suggests that treatment involving the family is superior to individual treatment. more research is required in this important field.
Teenagers' reported use of fictitious drugs. A study of false positives
Authors: Pape Hilde , Storvoll Elisabet E. 
Published: December 2017

Aims We have analyzed teenagers' self-reported experiences with a fictitious drug, and explored whether observed characteristics of individuals who report use of real, illegal substances change when overreporters are excluded from the analyses. Methods & Data Data stemmed from a school-based, nationwide survey of 13–19 year olds in Norway (N = 11928, response rate: 92%). Results Two percent reported that they had been offered the non-existent drug “zetacyllin”, whereas 0.5% allegedly had used it. “Zetacyllin users” appeared to be heavy users of existing substances, and therefore rates of GHB-, heroin-, LSD- and cocaine use dropped markedly when they were excluded from the sample. Correlates of such real drug use also changed when analyses without “zetacyllin users” were performed: The statistical effect of gender (i.e. being male) vanished, whereas the impact of age increased. The pattern of correlates with respect to indicators of socio-economic background also changed, but in different directions. Conclusions False positives may seriously distort the validity of survey-data on rare phenomena such as hard drug use. Due to this kind of response error, rates of uncommon behaviors may be inflated and observed correlates may deviate from the true pattern of correlates.
Social representations of alcohol and illegal drugs in focus group interviews with 18-year-olds and parents of teenagers
Authors: Abrahamson Maria 
Published: December 2017

Aims To analyse two generations' associations to the words ‘alcohol’ and ‘illegal drugs’ Methods Focus groups were conducted with seven groups of 18-year-olds and four groups of parents of teenagers. The groups of young people and the groups of parents were in several respects each other's opposites. The young people were selected for focus group interviews because they drink and like to party. The parents were selected because they represent parents who take an active interest and care in young people's alcohol and drug habits. The focus group sessions started with the participants writing down all their associations, first to ‘alcohol’ and then to ‘illegal drugs’, with two minutes for each topic. The processing was done by classifying all words under separate headings depending on the theme of the associations. Results The most striking similarities between the young people of the study and the parents are that the two generations have similar notions of the benefits of alcohol. These regard having fun together with other people, creating a party atmosphere and feelings of togetherness, and also that alcohol offers relaxation. Notions about the short-term negative effects of alcohol are also similar. The most obvious difference between the generations is that young people lack any words connoting the long-term negative consequences from alcohol use. When it comes to illegal drugs, disassociation from illegal drugs is the foremost similarity between the young people and the parents. The differences in the main are that the young people have more concrete associations as well as value-free descriptions of the effects of using drugs and the times for using drugs. The parents describe the phenomenon more from a distance. Their associative paths extend to things that probably do not exist within their own sphere of reference. Another difference is that the young people sometimes have positive associations to drugs, which are missing among the parents. Conclusions In several ways young people and parents share the same ideas about alcohol and illegal drugs. In regard to alcohol they share the idea of the immediate beneficial properties of alcohol as well as its immediate negative consequences, ideas that seem culturally deep-rooted. In regard to drugs the associative picture given by young people and parents to a large extent also seems mutual, with respect to the predominantly negative picture. To a certain extent, however, the young people show in their associations that illegal drugs are a normal phenomena, while simultaneously showing that drugs are abnormal, and that most disassociate from them. Even in young people with positive connotations to drugs there are expressions of cautiousness and risk consciousness.
Alcohol Poisonings in Sweden 1987–2004: Trends and temporal patterns in times of a rapidly rising population drinking
Authors: Ramstedt Mats 
Published: December 2017

Background Hospitalisations with explicit mention of alcohol poisoning are common in Sweden with around 13 000 recorded cases for 2004. Despite the extent and seriousness of this alcohol-related consequence surprisingly few studies have used hospitalisation data in analysing alcohol poisonings. This paper examines trends in alcohol poisonings in Sweden during the period 1987–2004 a period characterised by one of the fastest increases in alcohol consumption in modern times. Aims Two main questions are addressed: 1. To what extent have trends in alcohol poisonings changed and do they differ between men and women in different age groups? 2. To what extent do alcohol poisonings display a temporal pattern? Data The data consists of all hospitalisations with alcohol poisoning as the main or contributory diagnosis during 1987–2004. which meant a total of 205 483 hospitalisations involving 145 020 individuals. Results Hospitalisations with an alcohol poisoning diagnosis have increased since the late 1990s for both men and women and include all age groups except for those aged 30–49 (men and women) and 20–29 (men). The temporal variation was most pronounced among younger age groups, peaking on weekends and during special festivities whereas, among older age groups, alcohol poisonings are just as likely to happen during ordinary weekdays. Conclusion Alcohol poisonings constitute a major problem in Sweden and have increased during recent years, though the increase does not cover all age groups. The temporal pattern of alcohol poisonings suggests that binge drinking on weekends and during festivities is an important factor behind alcohol poisonings in younger age groups (<30) whereas among older people it is more likely related to a longer period of heavy drinking among marginalised heavy drinkers.
Ethical Control of Social Research
Authors: Mäkelä Klaus 
Published: December 2017

The rights of research subjects must not be violated, but the protection of research subjects should not distort research results or lead to breaches of scientific openness. At least four reasons can be offered for being cautious in applying medical guidelines as such within other disciplines: 1. Interventions studied in typical medical research are much more invasive than typical social research. 2. The impact of medical and social research on research subjects involves quite different causal chains. 3. The relationship between research subjects and a sociologist carrying out a study of social power resembles the relationship between a journalist and a minister more closely than that of a doctor and a patient. 4. There are important differences between research processes in medicine and social sciences, particularly in qualitative studies. In social research, research designs are more open-ended. Detailed information does not always improve the position of research participants. In social research, a few sentences often suffice to describe what the research is about. Researchers must not harm their research subjects, but they need not benefit them. No such promises should be made to research subjects that narrow the scope of scientific openness. The interpretation of informed consent should not impede the use of the data in further research. Research benefits and data-protection risks need to be weighed against each other. The researcher should have a right to gather data with an accuracy that is too high to allow the data to be published. Among group level consequences of social research, attention should only be paid to unfair consequences. The legal protection of the confidentiality of datasets in behavioural sciences needs to be improved. Qualitative research plans should specify how the data will be preserved, anonymised and archived.
Polarization in Alcohol Consumption among Icelandic Adolescents, 1995–2003
Authors: Bjarnason Thoroddur 
Published: December 2017

Aims Alcohol use among Icelandic adolescents has declined substantially in the last decade. This paper evaluates the source of this decline by examining changes in the frequency and quantity of adolescent alcohol consumption in the period 1995–2003. Data and Methods The total population of 10th grade (15–16-year-olds) students in Iceland was surveyed in 1995, 1999 and 2003 as part of the European School Survey Project on Alcohol and Other Drugs (ESPAD). Results The total volume of alcohol consumed by 15–16-year-old students declined by 15% between 1995 and 2003. This decline can be traced to an increasing number of abstainers. Among adolescent alcohol consumers drinking was more frequent and the total volume of alcohol they consumed increased by 19% between 1995 and 2003. Conclusion Declining alcohol use among Icelandic adolescents is due to fewer alcohol consumers and cannot be traced to less consumption by active drinkers. Adolescents who consume alcohol regularly have increased their consumption in this period.
Price Elasticities of Alcoholic Beverages in Finland in 1995–2004
Authors: Vihmo Jouni 
Published: December 2017

Aims The purpose of this article is (i) to report on the long-term average price and expenditure elasticities of retail and licensed alcohol sales by type of beverage and distribution channel in Finland in 1995–2004 (ii) to assess the impacts of the major alcohol policy changes that were made in Finland in 2004 on consumer behaviour; and (iii) to discuss the impacts of the recent set of legislative reforms introduced by the Finnish government on alcohol consumption. Methods & Data The demand model applied that is based on a time series analysis is in keeping with Deaton's and Muellbauer's (1980) AIDS model. The dependent variables are the consumption of alcoholic beverages as a proportion of total private consumption. The models are estimated using Zellner's (1962) SURE estimation. The annual data cover retail alcohol sales and sales of alcoholic beverages on licensed premises in Finland in 1964–2004. Results Retail consumption has a price elasticity of 0.70, for consumption on licensed premises the figure is 0.58. The expenditure elasticity of retail consumption is 1.59 and that of licensed consumption 1.97. By type of beverage, wine has the highest price elasticity at 1.-41, while the figure for liquor is 0.83 and for beer 0.40. The expenditure elasticity for liquor is the highest at 1.57. As for consumption on licensed premises, liquor showed by far the highest elasticity at 2.34. The corresponding figures for wine and beer were 1.02 and 0.24, respectively. In licensed consumption, too, liquor showed by far the highest expenditure elasticity at 2.67. Conclusions The results of this study lend support to the view that changes in price elasticities happen very slowly. In spite of the momentous changes to Finnish alcohol control policy in 2004, the results reported are very similar to the elasticities in earlier studies. There have been no radical changes in the associations described by demand functions between alcohol prices and consumption levels. In the light of the time series available, the changes of 2004 have not perhaps been quite as significant as some commentators have suggested. The biggest changes have happened in consumption on licensed premises.
Teenagers' “use” of Non-Existent Drugs: A study of false positives
Authors: Pape Hilde , Storvoll Elisabet E. 
Published: December 2017

Aims We have analyzed teenagers' self-reported experiences with a fictitious drug, and explored whether observed characteristics of individuals who report use of real illegal substances change when overreporters are excluded from the analyses. Methods & Data Data stemmed from a school-based, nationwide survey of 13–19-year-olds in Norway (N = 11928, response rate: 92%). Results Two percent reported that they had been offered the non-existent drug “zetacyllin”, whereas 0,5% allegedly had used it. “Zetacyllin users” appeared to be heavy users of existing substances, and therefore rates of GHB-, heroin-, LSD- and cocaine use dropped markedly when they were excluded from the sample. Correlates of such real drug use also changed when analyses without “zetacyllin users” were performed: The statistical effect of gender (i.e. being male) vanished, whereas the impact of age increased. The pattern of correlates with respect to indicators of socioeconomic background also changed, but in different directions. Conclusions False positives may seriously distort the validity of survey-data on rare phenomena such as hard drug use. Due to this kind of response error rates of uncommon behaviors may be inflated and observed correlates may deviate from the true pattern of correlates.
Interbedömarreliabilitet – Ett Tillförlitligt Mått På Standardiserade Intervjuer?
Authors: Anderberg Mats , Dahlberg Mikael 
Published: December 2017

Aims Inter-rater reliability studies are unusual as regards the standardised interview instruments used in the Swedish treatment care system for substance abusers. This article presents the results of a study intended to establish the inter-rater reliability of DOK interviews, through identification of question areas and items with high or low correspondence, and through analysis of how ratings differ between different interviewers. Methods & Data In total 41 practitioners participated in this study, with various experiences and from six different treatment units of the Swedish treatment care system for substance abusers. Participants gave their ratings and completed the DOK questionnaire based on a video-taped interview. Calculation and analysis of the correspondences were carried out for each individual question area and also each individual item by using appropriate statistical methods. Differences between the various assessors are presented. Results The results of the study show that the percentage agreement for the question areas and the items is generally high, with the exception of a few isolated questions. Conclusions Among the many possible different explanations for a lack of correspondence is that the questions could be ambiguously constructed and defined or the interview guidelines do not offer satisfactory guidance, or some questions could be too detailed. In addition, a few of the raters may lack sufficient training or experience when it comes to conducting interviews based on DOK. The combined results of the study show that there is a high level of inter-rater reliability, which indicates that in practice it is possible to utilise structured interviews such as DOK.
Explanations and Implications of Concurrent and Diverging Trends
Authors: Rossow Ingeborg , Mäkelä Pia , Österberg Esa 
Published: December 2017

Aims This paper summarizes and discusses the trends in alcohol consumption and various types of alcohol related-harm in the five Nordic countries—Denmark. Finland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden. Results and Conclusions The development in alcohol consumption versus alcohol-related harm is mixed. In some cases the trends are fairly parallel whereas in other cases they are diverging. This article lays out the different potential methodological and substantive explanations for the diverging trends. as well as discussing their likely explanatory value. Although we have observed that trends in alcohol consumption are not necessarily followed by similar trends in all indicators of alcohol-related harm, we conclude that there is still in general reason to assume that a significant change in total alcohol consumption in a Nordic country is—all other things being equal—likely to be followed by a change in the same direction in various alcohol-related harms in that population.
Trends in Alcohol Consumption and Alcohol-Related Harms in Norway around the Turn of the Millennium
Authors: Rossow Ingeborg 
Published: December 2017

Aims This study aims to examine whether the significant increase in alcohol consumption in Norway since 1993 is reflected in various alcohol-related harms over the same period. Data The study draws on various register statistics and population sample surveys that provide mostly annual time series data on alcohol-related mortality morbidity crimes and other social harms. Results and Discussion When examining a wide range of alcohol-related harms some—but not all—harm trends were found to follow the same increasing trend as alcohol consumption. The results are discussed with respect to data accuracy as well as more substantive possible explanations for a mismatch in trends in consumption and harms.
Prevention of Alcohol- and Tobacco-Related Harms
Authors: Craplet Michel 
Published: December 2017

Based on a definition of comprehensive prevention, the author submits prevention actions in alcohol and tobacco related problems to the question: “Education or control, must we choose?” After reviewing the history, the author describes the current panorama of health education actions and control before discussing some methodological and ethical questions concerning the methods and the actors of prevention. He tries to define “prevention ideal” – which must be distinguished from “ideal prevention” and its totalitarian abuse – to introduce the second part of his text which deals with the question of evaluation of the effectiveness of alcohol- and tobacco-related problems prevention. The author confirms the efficacy of control measures, but also shows that education has a certain degree of efficacy, despite the dominant trends in Anglo-Saxons countries. He also shows that education is necessary in the context of many European countries. After discussing the issue of cost-effectiveness ratio, the author emphasise the need for global prevention taking into account cultural and political elements to ensure efficient as well as effective prevention and social acceptance of this prevention.
Drug-Related Harm According to Opiate Users on Buprenorphine Treatment
Authors: Weckroth Antti 
Published: December 2017

Aims The purpose of this article is to analyse the meanings given to substances as intoxicants, medicine and treatment from the client perspective in buprenorphine treatment. How do the clients construct drug-related harms and how do they act to reduce the harms? Methods The material is ethnographic and consists of participant observation and client interviews. The data is gathered from an institutional treatment facility offering buprenorphine treatment. Clients stressed the excitement of heroin use as opposed to the safety of buprenorphoine. The negative aspects of amphetamins are strongly emphasised. They did not justify the need for substitution therapy. The negative effects of heroin had a dual meaning in that they also assigned a positive user identity and justified the need for medication. The safety aspect of burprenorphine was linked to nonexistent overdose risk and to difficulty in tracing the substance in urine tests. The function of burprenorphine as an intoxicant was to restrict the harm resulting from the use of other intoxicants. The clients in substitution treatment emphasised the positive effect of buprenorfine as a medicine while those in detox emphasised the negative effects. Treatment itself receives positive meaning when it offers belief in achieving the personal treatment goal and negative meaning if it fails to do so. Conclusion The dual political role of bruprenorphine as a life saving medication and an evil drug complicates the status and role of clients in buprenorphine treatment.