Nordic Studies on Alcohol and Drugs

To assess the prevalence rates and risk factors of electronic cigarette (e-cigarette) use, with special focus on e-cigarettes containing nicotine, among grade 9 students (aged 15–16 years) in four different municipalities in Sweden.

A cross-sectional sample of 665 adolescents was collected in April 2014. The data was analysed using binary logistic regression analysis.

The results show that 26% of adolescents in this study have smoked e-cigarettes (have ever used), while 19% have smoked e-cigarettes with nicotine or do not know whether or not they contained nicotine. The strongest risk factor for ever having used e-cigarettes (any type or with nicotine) was smoking conventional cigarettes. Having tried cigarettes and having tried snus, as well as using or having used alcohol and having smoked a water pipe were also statistically significant risk factors for ever use of any type of e-cigarettes but not for use of e-cigarettes with nicotine. There was no gender difference.

Our result show that the use of e-cigarettes tends to cluster with the use of other substances, such as other tobacco products and alcohol. As a relatively large share of the participating adolescents, more than a fourth, had smoked e-cigarettes, this rather new phenomenon requires monitoring as a part of the tobacco control.

Problem gambling, even if it occurs in leisure time, can cause harm in the workplace. Problem gamblers are preoccupied with gambling and often suffer from psychiatric and psychosomatic symptoms caused by their excessive gambling. This may lead to inefficiency at work and absenteeism. Severe gambling problems typically lead to a constant need for money, which may result in theft of money or goods from the workplace and in embezzlement. This paper outlines measures to prevent and respond to gambling-related harm and crime in the workplace.

A review of the literature and qualitative interviews with therapists specializing in problem gambling treatment, peer counsellors from mutual support societies, recovered problem gamblers who have embezzled, and professionals working in workplace crime security and the prevention of alcohol, drug and gambling harm.

Important measures in preventing and responding to gambling harm in the workplace include: substance use and gambling policy, problem gambling awareness, attention to signs of gambling-related harm, control functions, appropriate responses to harmful gambling, and rehabilitation.

The workplace should play a greater role in the universal, selective and indicated prevention of problem gambling.

The purpose of the study is to describe and analyse how cannabis is constructed in Swedish print media and if this has changed over time. Sweden is known for its prohibitionist cannabis policy, but this approach seems increasingly challenged on both international and domestic arenas. It is therefore important to see if and how this international change is mirrored and processed in a key arena such as print media.

Newspaper material from two years, 2002 and 2012, was included to analyse continuity and change. The theoretical backdrop for the study is social constructionism, and methodological concepts such as discourse and subject positions from discourse theory were used to investigate how cannabis and cannabis problems are constructed.

The analysis showed that print media in both years seem to draw mainly on a juridical, a social problems and a medical discourse when portraying cannabis. It is through these discourses that some subject positions become relevant as users (e.g. youth) and as experts (e.g. police). Despite a strong continuity in these cannabis constructions, the analysis also shows signs of change. For example, in 2012 there are articles drawing on economic and recreational discourses, and there is a global outlook enabling new cannabis constructions.

The Swedish print media generally has a crime-centred and deterrent approach towards cannabis, with prohibition at the heart of the reporting. International events do however introduce discursive alternatives in 2012. It remains to be seen if these new ways of writing about cannabis will strengthen or challenge prohibitionist constructions.

This study examined the relationship between alcohol misuse and different types of childhood maltreatment in a sample of young adults while controlling for posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms and current mental disorders. This study further examined if these associations were different for males and females.

Data were collected from a Danish national study conducted by The Danish National Centre for Social Research in 2008 and 2009. A sample of 4718 young adults (24 years of age) was randomly selected using the total birth cohort of children born in 1984. Structured interviews were conducted with a response rate of 63%, equating to a total sample size of 2980 participants.

Three types of child maltreatment were assessed; emotional abuse (N =263), sexual abuse (N=59), and multiple abuse (N=64) alongside a non-abused (N=2595) control group. Findings indicated the three maltreatment groups were all related to alcohol misuse. Maltreated women in particular had a 16-to-25-fold increased risk of alcohol misuse. For males these associations were attenuated with odds ratios (OR) ranging between 3 and 5 for emotional and multiple abuse groups. PTSD symptoms were associated with alcohol misuse for both genders, whilst current mental health disorder was non-significant for both males and females.

A significant relationship was found between the child maltreatment and alcohol misuse. This relationship was significantly stronger for maltreated women, which identifies a gap in the literature. High associations between maltreatment and alcohol misuse in females may suggest alcohol is used as a coping strategy following childhood maltreatment.

Use of coercion against pregnant women who misuse substances was legalised in Norway in 1996. The background for the law was that substance abuse during pregnancy represents a significant health problem for the child.

The main aim of this study was to explore if an attachment between the mother and her unborn child was possible in a context of coercion as experienced from the woman's perspective. The women had many challenges, such as lack of social support and poor living conditions.

Data were collected in eight qualitative in-depth interviews.

The main findings show how involuntary detention enabled safety for and connection with the unborn child. Within this context, the pregnant substance-abusing women's own relational experiences and developmental histories represent the most significant barrier for their ability to bond with the expected child.

The study underlines the importance of helping women with their own attachment experiences in order to break the generational transference of risk and pathology, and in this way, start the attachment process to the unborn child during the coerced treatment stay. Implications of the findings are discussed.