Heroin-assisted treatment
Project leader: Linda Elise Couëssurel Wüsthoff
The Government has decided to initiate a trial project involving heroin-assisted treatment (HAT) as part of medication-assisted rehabilitation (MAR). The trial project is set to run for a duration of 5 years, commencing in 2021 in Oslo and Bergen. The clinical trial's objective is to expand MAR to encompass medical heroin (diacetylmorphine) in either injectable or oral (tablet) form, aimed at treating individuals for whom the standard MAR protocol has not yielded satisfactory outcomes.
The overarching goals of the research project is to assess how HAT, as a novel clinical intervention, can be implemented and integrated within the MAR framework, the clinical outcomes of the treatment, and the potential cost-benefit effects of the initiative.
The study is intended to culminate in an evaluation report with recommendations to the public authorities regarding whether HAT should be continued, expanded, or terminated after the trial period.
The project is led by the Norwegian Centre for Addiction Research (SERAF) at the University of Oslo, and run in collaboration with RusForsk (Oslo University Hospital), Bergen Addiction Research (BAR) (Helse Bergen), the Centre for Substance Abuse Research (CRF) at Aarhus University, and the user organization proLAR Nett.
RusForsk will lead the research efforts in sub-studies related to the following thematic areas:
- Attitudes and experiences regarding HAT among patients, family members, and staff
- Process evaluation of the implementation of the HAT treatment program
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