The purpose with our essay was to examine what favourable factors there are for women to get out of Drug abuse and from a gender aspect interpret how these factors are used in the treatment of female drug-addicts, regarded from the treatment personnel view. The questions we have focused on are: What are the favourable factors for women in the way out of the addiction. How can the use of favourable factors be interpreted from a gender aspect. In what way is the knowledge about these favourable factors used in the Drug abuse treatment.To fulfil the purpose whit our examination and to get answers to our questions we performed an explorative examination and applied a qualitative method in the form of a half structured interview with five persons.The main features of the results in our examination were that unisexual treatment, the group and the friendship between women, children and pregnancy and professional and private social network were considered as the favourable factors for the women out of their addiction. Certain factors were used in the treatment as a way to socialize or resocialize the female drug-addicts to predominant social models of how a woman should be like..

Aims: To examine how patients with experience of being involuntarily discharged from medication-assisted treatment with methadone or buprenorphine have coped with the consequences following the discharge. The study also aim to examine how the patients cope with the stigma related to their abuse of heroin and how they manage to cope with the rules regarding themedication-assisted treatment. Method: Three patients with experience of involuntary discharge from medication-assisted treatment have been interviewed. All were heroin abusing men living in Stockholm. The interviewees were recruited through the Swedish Drug Users Union and through a shelter for homeless people with drug problems.

Title: Consequences of diversion ? a qualitative interview study regarding illicitbuprenorphine use.In year 1999 buprenorphine was introduced in Sweden and is used in treatment for opioiddependence. An issue concerning substitution treatment programmes is the occurrence ofdiversion and the following illegal sails of buprenorphine on a black market. The aim of thisstudy was to explore how people who have used illicitly obtained buprenorphine describessuch abuse. The study was conducted using qualitative method, where a total of fiveindividuals were interviewed about past experiences of having used illicitly acquiredbuprenorphine.

The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationship between mental illness and socioeconomic factors such as education, age and gender among drug users. Descriptive and ANOVA analysis were performed to 68 structured interviews (Addiction Severity Index basic). Analysis addressed associations between drug usage and level of education, age and gender. Results showed gender differences in self-rated mental health with women drug users rating their mental health lower than men. In addition, there was no association between age, educational level and self-rated mental health.

The purpose of this study is to investigate university students, studying social work, attitudes against the drug policies, zero tolerance and harm reduction. This was done by quantitative survey utilizing questioners targeting students in semester one to four at Stockholm University, Department of Social Work. The study included 295 students responding to the questioners. The results have been analyzed utilizing theories regarding attitudes and their influence of different social aspects; social influences, social norms and conformity. The result of this study shows that the students prefer the drug policy of harm reduction over zero tolerance.

The purpose of this essay was to investigate which factors the individuals found important in the process of becoming a person with a drug-free life. The framing of the questions we had were to get the experiences, thoughts and wishes of the drug users. The survey was based on thematised qualitative interviews and focused in the personal stories of the interviewees. We interviewed four women and five men, all of which had several years of drug-abuse behind them. We found similarities and patterns and we could identify that the three most important things was the own motivation, will and that the drug-abuser had the possibility to change their social network and had the ability to find other important things in life..

The aim of this study is to examine how young people look at and perceive drugs by studying how they discuss and reason about drugs. The essay's main interest is not whether young people use drugs or not. We are primarily interested in how young people talk about drugs. The questions that we want to get answered are:What are the beliefs that young people have about drugs, drug use and drug users? More specifically we seek answers to which images, symbols and attributes that young people links to drugs, drug use and drug users.What is important in young people's construction of beliefs about drugs and drug users? More specifically, which are the information sources and reference groups that young people assigns significance?We used focus group interviews as the research method.

The aim of this study was to examine how "Professional Exes", individuals that have exited a Drug abuse and a criminal career and further are educated to work in the addiction field, transformed their identity and which factors that were significant in the process. The result of this study are based on semi-structured interviews with five Professional Exes and shows which specific factors in the process that contributed to the transformation and what kind of difficulties and barriers that existed during the process. The study suggests that, among other things, identification with others exes and the 12 Step Program are significant factors in the process. Furthermore, the study suggests that a difficulty in the transformation is that residues from the previous identity such as a poor self-esteem occurred in some situations..

The purpose of this study was to, through the life stories of four women and their experiences, thoughts and feelings according to a life in drug dependency reach an increased knowledge about how a dependency can arise, continue and be brought to an end. The question at issue were: How do a small amount of women describe and comprehend their experiences, thoughts and feelings according to their drug addiction seen through a process perspective. In order to answer that question three themes were investigated: the road into dependency, living as an addict and the road to recovery from dependency and the time that follows. The study followed a qualitative method and the theoretical approach was hermeneutic. The results were analysed through a process analyse perspective, from the view of the chosen theoretical perspectives, social constructivism, experience perspective and a psychodynamic perspective.

Our main purpose has been to describe and compare two community's ways of organising and executing the social welfare sectors drug and alcohol abuse programs. We also wanted to explain the similarities and differences we found with the help of an organisations theoretical perspective. A second purpose has been to try to find out if the difference affects the clients possibility to receive equal care.To find out how the community's organise and execute their drug and alcohol programs, we interviewed two social workers in leading positions in Landskrona and Ängelholm. We have further more, to find out if the differences we found influencing the clients possibility to recieve equal care, completed an inquiry with fictional cases that all of the involved social workers, at each community, built an opinion upon.Our main result showed more simmularities than differences in our two community's ways of organasing and executing their drug and alcohol programs. We judged the clients possibility to adequate care to be equally sufficient no matter where he sought care, since our study showed that the social workers choice of approach did not differ significantly between the two communities, even though we found differences in their way to organise and execute the social welfare sectors drug and alcohol abuse programs..

The aim of the study was to examine how background factors, such as abuse earlier in life, affect depression and suicidal behavior, amongst persons who abuse alcohol or illicit drugs. The study was performed at the Social Service Center, Södermalm, department for adults. The data used in the study is based on Addiction Severity Index interviews (ASI) and includes 560 observations. The statistic methods used to analyse the data is chi² test and the result is presented in cross tables and charts. The main findings were that experiences of psychological, physical, or sexual abuse, earlier in life increase the risk for major depression and suicidal behavior later in life.

It?s known that the drug information patients get at discharge from hospital is often insufficient. Patients? ignorance of which drug they use and how to take them can lead to drug related problems, can cause suffering and heavy expenses.The aim of this study was to shed light on the patients? understanding for drug information, which was given at discharge from hospital. The literature survey was used as a method and based upon a systematic choice of scientific articles, which were found in different databases during the period of April 1 to May 31, 2008.

The aim of this study was to examine how the new established phenomenon of ?Internet drugs? causes challenges to organizations, both individually and in relation to collaboration. The study is based on qualitative semi-structured interviews with representatives from three organizations - one youth police unit, one medical addiction centre and four units working within social services. The theoretical approach that was used is theory about human service organizations, theory about collaboration and new institutional organizational theory. A conclusion is that the current drug classification is problematic and mainly challenging for the organizations that focus on prevention work and early interventions.

The drug treatment staff attitude towards needle exchange is what investigates in this study. The aim of this study is to see what?s affecting the standpoints in the needle exchange issue and also to investigate if the needle exchange is compatible with Swedish drug policy. The study has a qualitative approach and it?s based on eight semi-structured interviews with drug treatment staff.

AbstractTitle: Anabolic Androgenic Steroids ? An analysis of how AAS is portrayed in Swedish media.Author: Jens SundénTutor: Philip LalanderKeywords: AAS, Anabolic steroids, social problems, media, Drug abuse, genderThe purpose of this study was to investigate how Anabolic Androgenic Steroids (AAS) are portrayed and described in the media, how AAS is constructed as a social problem, and how society in a social context uses knowledge and power for disciplinary and educational means. The study is based on the perception of AAS as a constructed social problem and analyzes the discourses surrounding AAS depicted in three Swedish newspapers. The sample was prepared on the basis that it represents different aspects of daily Swedish press. The method used in the paper is a discourse analysis with social constructivism and gender as theoretical tools used to analyze the sample material.