PriSUD-Nordic: Treatment of substance abuse disorders in the prison population - an opportunity for better public health

About half of all inmates have a substance abuse disorder when they go to prison, and after release the risk of overdose death and relapse into substance abuse is very high. Because of this it is important to detect substance abuse disorders upon arrival at the prison and offer adequate treatment for substance abuse disorders during imprisonment, which will lead to better health for people with substance abuse disorders in prison. 

PriSUD-Nordic will be the first longitudinal study examining inmates with substance abuse disorders in three Nordic countries. The overall goal of PriSUD-Nordic is to develop new knowledge that contributes to better mental and physical health, improved quality of life among people with substance abuse disorders in prison. The project aims to examine inmates in three different periods related to imprisonment: the time before imprisonment, the time during imprisonment and after release.

PriSUD-Nordic will build on the Nordic countries' potential for research, including universal health rights for all citizens, national health registries and good public services. To achieve the ambitious goals, we have put together a strong, interdisciplinary research group. The group will collect and analyze data from links of several national registers. In addition, a qualitative study is planned, including ethnographic fieldwork and semi-structured interviews to investigate how drug treatment is implemented and integrated in the prison context. An important goal of the project is also to communicate all research produced to a wide audience including current and former inmates, user organizations, politicians, prison officers and the general population.