Use of Selective Serotonin Reuptake Inhibitors - Validity of Self-Report versus Plasma Concentrations and Pharmacy Dispensations - A Cross-Sectional Analysis of the Norwegian Women and Cancer Study.

Purpose: To validate self-reported current use of selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRI) in the Norwegian Women and Cancer study (NOWAC) and to identify factors associated with discordance between data sources.

Material And Methods: This is a cross-sectional record-linkage study comparing SSRI-use derived from four data sources: 1) Specific SSRI questions in the main NOWAC questionnaire, 2) Open questions on medication use in the small questionnaire following blood samples, 3) plasma concentration measurements for a subsample, and 4) pharmacy dispensations from the Norwegian prescription database (NorPD) where current use of SSRI was defined by Legend Time Duration (LTD). Among 105 855 women, aged 46 to 64 years and randomly selected from the general population, 70,191 had data on SSRI-use from both NOWAC and NorPD.

Dispensing of prescribed analgesics in Norway among young people with foreign-or Norwegian-born parents.

Purpose To examine and compare dispensing of prescribed analgesics between young people with parents from countries with a Muslim majority and those with parents born in Norway. Methods Our study-population constituted 11,542 adolescents from the Norwegian Youth Health Surveys conducted in 2000-2003. Users and non-users of prescribed analgesics at baseline were analysed separately.

The association between prescribed opioid use for mothers and children: a record-linkage study.

Purpose: The repeated use of prescription opioids may lead to serious side effects. It is therefore important to examine factors associated with such repeated use. The aim of this study was to investigate the association between the maternal use of prescription opioids and their use by offspring of these mothers.

The association between smoking and subsequent repeated use of prescribed opioids among adolescents and young adults--a population-based cohort study.

Background: The use of prescribed opioids for chronic non-cancer pain is increasing in many countries. It is, therefore, important to investigate predictors for repeated use of opioids in young non-cancer patients.

Objective: The aim of this study was to prospectively evaluate adolescent smoking and its association with repeated use of prescription opioids in adolescents/young adults without cancer.

Prescriptions of opioids to children and adolescents; a study from a national prescription database in Norway.

Background: Analgesics are among the groups of drugs most frequently prescribed to children and adolescents. The prevalence of opioid use in children and adolescents is, however, not known.

Aim: The primary aim was to determine the 1-year periodic prevalence of opioid dispension in Norwegian children and adolescents below 18 years of age.

[Serenoa repens in benign prostatic hyperplasia].

Serenoa repens is one of many herbal products used to treat benign prostatic hyperplasia. The treatment has been studied extensively, but the methodological quality has often been poor. Metaanalysis of early studies indicate that the treatment may have favourable effects on patients with benign prostatic hyperplasia, but more recent investigations of better methodological quality have questioned these results.