What is it all about? An explorative study of patients' experiences with medication free treatment.

Background: As a response to the political decision by the Norwegian Ministry of Health and Care Services to establish some kind of "medication free treatment" for patients with severe mental illness throughout the country, a 6-bed ward unit dedicated to offer such treatment was in 2017 established in Tromsø, Norway by the North Norway Health Care Region. The aim of the present study was to explore the experiences of patients admitted to this ward unit.

Method: Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 19 persons who had received treatment from the ward during the period January 2017 to October 2021.

Exploring the unconventional: health professionals' experiences into medication-free treatment for patients with severe mental illness.

Background: In January 2017, the Norwegian government mandated the establishment of an inpatient unit for "medication-free treatment" for patients with severe mental illness at the University Hospital of North Norway in Tromsø. This study aims to explore the employees' experiences with this unit.

Method: Focus group interviews were conducted October 2021 - February 2022.

Response processes for patients providing quantitative self-report data: a qualitative study.

Objective: To identify factors that influence response processes for patients providing quantitative self-report data. Secondly, due to the lack of integrative and explanatory models in this area, to develop a model of patients' response processes that can guide what to look for when considering validity evidence and interpreting scores on individual items.

Methods: Participants (n = 13) were recruited from a specialized substance use disorder treatment clinic and interviewed while responding to items from a clinical feedback system implemented for routine outcome monitoring in that setting.

Beyond the diagnosis of drug-resistant Tuberculosis in Norway: patients' experiences before, during and after treatment.

Background: This study aims to explore the varied experiences of patients with drug-resistant tuberculosis in Norway. The study emphasizes challenges and implications of being diagnosed with drug-resistant tuberculosis, including the impact on psychosocial health during the diagnosis, disease, treatment, isolation and recovery phases. Norway is a low endemic country of tuberculosis.

Why do patients want medication free treatment for psychosis? An explorative study on reasons for applying to medication free programs.

Background: A focus on patient's and service user's perspectives regarding long-term antipsychotic treatment led to a declaration from the Norwegian Ministry of Health in 2015 to offer treatment without psychotropic medication in mental health as a voluntary option in all four health care regions. In the northernmost region, a 6-bed inpatient ward unit was established, uniquely designed to give people with severe mental illness the possibility to choose such treatment. Only voluntary admissions were accepted.

Points of departure: A qualitative study exploring relational facilitators and barriers in the first treatment session.

To explore how patients and therapists in an outpatient specialized substance use disorder treatment setting experienced the first treatment session, and to identify relational facilitators and barriers seen from both patient and therapist perspectives. The study is based on a qualitative approach and semi-structured interviews of patients ( = 12) and therapists ( = 12). Interviews were conducted soon after the first treatment session and analyzed in accordance with reflexive thematic analysis.

Exploring sustainable care pathways - a scoping review.

Background: Patients with mental health problems experience numerous transitions into and out of hospital.

Aim: The review studies assessing clinical care pathways between psychiatric hospitalization and community health services.

Methods: We used publications between 2009-2020 to allow a broad scoping review of the published research.

European survey on national harmonization in clinical research.

Background: Clinical trials remain key to the development of evidence-based medical practice. However, they are becoming increasingly complex, mainly in a multinational setting. To address these challenges, the European Union (EU) adopted the Clinical Trial Regulation EU No.

Cytokines in Relation to Motor Activity in an Acute Psychiatric Population.

Deviations in motor activity are important clinical features of several psychiatric disorders in an acute state. Immune activity is associated with several psychiatric disorders and may affect motor activity. We aimed to examine the association between immune activity measured as serum levels of cytokines and deviations in motor activity, in an acute psychiatric setting.

Patients' perspectives on care pathways and informed shared decision making in the transition between psychiatric hospitalization and the community.

Rationale, Aims, And Objectives: Patients with mental health problems experience numerous transitions into and out of hospital. This study explores former patients' views of pathways in transition between district psychiatric hospital centres (DPCs) and community mental health services.

Method: A descriptive qualitative design was chosen.

Does the working alliance mediate the effect of routine outcome monitoring (ROM) and alliance feedback on psychotherapy outcomes? A secondary analysis from a randomized clinical trial.

Little is known about the mechanisms through which routine outcome monitoring (ROM) influences psychotherapy outcomes. In this secondary analysis of data from a randomized clinical trial (Brattland et al., 2018), we investigated whether the working alliance mediated the effect of the Partners for Change Outcome Monitoring System (PCOMS), a ROM system that provides session-by-session feedback on clients' well-being and the alliance.

Parental satisfaction with neonatal intensive care units: a quantitative cross-sectional study.

Background: Patients and users experiences are useful for monitoring the quality of the hospital provisions and to improve health care delivery. Research results on associations between parental satisfaction and their socio-demographic status are inconclusive. We have also found a scarcity of research on the associations between parental satisfaction and standards of neonatal intensive care (NICU) services.

Care pathways in the transition of patients between district psychiatric hospital centres (DPCs) and community mental health services.

Rationale Aims And Objectives: Patients with mental health problems experience numerous transitions into and out of hospital. Primary care providers have mixed success in identifying and managing patients' needs. This study explores health personnel's experience of care pathways in patient transition between inpatient and community mental health services.

The effects of routine outcome monitoring (ROM) on therapy outcomes in the course of an implementation process: A randomized clinical trial.

This study investigated the effects of the Partners for Change Outcome Management System (PCOMS) in adult outpatient treatment at a hospital-based mental health clinic. It also investigated whether the effects differed with the timing of the treatment within a 4-year implementation period, with clients' initial distress levels, and between therapists. Adult clients (N = 170) were randomized to treatment as usual (TAU) or routine outcome monitoring (ROM).

Association between cytokines and psychiatric symptoms in chronic fatigue syndrome and healthy controls.

Purpose: The reports regarding the status of the immune system in patients with chronic fatigue syndrome/myalgic encephalopathy (CFS/ME) have been inconclusive. We approached this question by comparing a strictly defined group of CFS/ME outpatients to healthy control individuals, and thereafter studied cytokines in subgroups with various psychiatric symptoms.

Materials And Methods: Twenty patients diagnosed with CFS/ME according to the Fukuda criteria and 20 age- and sex-matched healthy controls were enrolled in the study.

FT4 and TSH, relation to diagnoses in an unselected psychiatric acute-ward population, and change during acute psychiatric admission.

Background: Alteration in thyroid activity is a well-known cause of symptoms mimicking psychiatric disorders. There are reports on altered levels of thyroid hormones in patients with certain psychiatric disorders compared to healthy controls; still, the magnitude and importance of the phenomenon is not known. We wanted to explore the level of thyroid hormones in different diagnostic groups in an acute-psychiatric population.

Validation of the Neonatal Satisfaction Survey (NSS-8) in six Norwegian neonatal intensive care units: a quantitative cross-sectional study.

Background: The experience of having their new-borns admitted to an intensive care unit (NICU) can be extremely distressing. Subsequent risk of post-incident-adjustment difficulties are increased for parents, siblings, and affected families. Patient and next of kin satisfaction surveys provide key indicators of quality in health care.

Association of psychosis, affective disorders and diseases affecting the immune system.

Unlabelled: Purpose of the article: There are indications of altered immune activity in depressed and psychotic patients compared to healthy controls in several studies. To explore the clinical importance of this phenomenon we examined the relation between different disorders affecting the immune system and psychoses and depression, respectively.

Materials And Methods: A total of 276 patients consecutively admitted to a psychiatric acute ward were included in the study.

Use of mechanical and pharmacological restraint over an eight-year period and its relation to clinical factors.

Background: Use of restraint and finding the balance between security and ethics is a continuous dilemma in clinical psychiatry. In daily clinic and in planning health-care service, knowledge on the characteristics of restraint situations is necessary to optimize its use and avoid abuse.

Methods: We describe characteristics in the use of pharmacological and mechanical restraint in psychiatric acute wards in a hospital in Middle Norway over an eight-year period.

Challenges in detecting and diagnosing substance use in women in the acute psychiatric department: a naturalistic cohort study.

Background: This study examines sex differences in substance use and substance use disorder in the acute psychiatric department, and possible interactions between sex and clinical and social factors associated with this phenomenon.

Methods: Data concerning substance use were collected in a naturalistic cohort study (n = 384, 51.6% male, 48.

Learning from clients: A qualitative investigation of psychotherapists' reactions to negative verbal feedback.

Objective: To explore how therapists experience, react to, and learn from negative feedback from their clients.

Method: Eighteen experienced therapists' written descriptions of episodes where they had received negative verbal feedback from clients were analyzed according to the Consensual Qualitative Research methodology.

Results: Receiving feedback was experienced as challenging, but educational.

Pathological spirit possession as a cultural interpretation of trauma-related symptoms.

Objective: Spirit possession is a phenomenon frequently occurring in war-torn countries. It has been shown to be an idiom of distress entailing dissociative symptoms. However, its association with trauma exposure and trauma-related disorders remains unclear.

The effect of a brief educational programme added to mental health treatment to improve patient activation: A randomized controlled trial in community mental health centres.

Objective: While there is growing interest in improving patient activation in general medical health services, there are too few randomized controlled trials in mental health settings which show how improvement can be achieved. Using the Patient Activation Measure-13 (PAM-13), we aimed to assess the effect of pre-treatment, peer co-led educational intervention on patient activation. Secondary outcomes included measures of patient satisfaction, well-being, mental health symptoms, motivation, and treatment participation.

Religious convictions in patients with epilepsy-associated affective disorders: a controlled study from a psychiatric acute department.

Patients with epilepsy often have different mood symptoms and behavioral trait characteristics compared to the non-epileptic population. In the present prospective study, we aimed to assess differences in behavioral trait characteristics between acutely admitted, psychiatric in-patients with epilepsy-associated depressive symptoms and gender/age-matched patients with major depression. Patients with epilepsy-associated depression had significantly higher scores for "religious convictions," "philosophical and intellectual interests" and "sense of personal destiny.

Psychological distress and perceived health in inmates in Norwegian prisons.

Background: Perceived health is a subjective measure of an individual's health based on self-reported, and self-knowledge about one's health status. It is related to one's functional status, morbidity, and mortality and serves as an important indicator in determining an individual's health status and health-related quality of life. The main purpose of this study is to explore (i) how a sample of adult inmates perceived their health and (ii) identify factors that may be associated with their perceived health.