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Biomedical subjects

S Rönnberg

Publications and source records attributed to S Rönnberg.

9 recordsLinked to original sources
PubMed2001

Prevalence and risks of pathological gambling in Sweden.

OBJECTIVE: This paper presents results from the first national survey of problem gambling completed in Sweden. METHOD: The Swedish survey is unique in its quality and representativeness, due to the use of multiple modes of data collection, recruitment of respondents from national registers rather than from households, and high response rate. RESULTS: In spite of high rates of gambling participation in Sweden, the combined prevalence of problem and pathological gambling in Sweden is relatively low (3.9% lifetime and 2.0% current). Multivariate analysis shows that being male, under the age of 25 and born abroad are significant risk factors for lifetime gambling problems in Sweden. Additional risk factors are being single, living in big cities, and receiving social welfare payments. CONCLUSION: The groups most at risk for gambling problems in Sweden are people disadvantaged and marginalized by international economic changes as well as the dismantling of the Swedish welfare system.

Adolescent↗
PubMed2000

The Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Test (AUDIT) and carbohydrate-deficient transferrin (CDT) in a routine workplace health examination.

BACKGROUND: Only a few studies on workplaces have examined the Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Test (AUDIT) or carbohydrate-deficient transferrin (CDT) as screening instruments for the early identification of elevated and risky levels of alcohol consumption. The purpose of this study was to compare the performances of AUDIT, CDT, and gamma-glutamyltransferase (GGT) in a routine health examination (alcohol screening) in the workplace. METHODS: The study, carried out over 16 months in a large workplace in the transport sector, was part of an on-going controlled study. Employees who came to the company health service for a routine health examination were offered the opportunity to undergo an alcohol screening and check their alcohol habits. RESULTS: Of the 570 subjects who participated, 105 (18.4%) screened positive according to AUDIT, CDT, or both. Only 7.6% of the persons who screened positive did so according to both instruments. If GGT had been included as a screening instrument, the proportion of positive results would have increased to 22.0%. If we had only used AUDIT in the screening process, the proportion of positives would have fallen by nearly half. CONCLUSIONS: The present findings suggest that AUDIT and CDT are complementary instruments for alcohol screening in a routine workplace health examination, and each has value for identifying a different segment of the risky drinking population.

Adult↗
PubMed1990

Brief group psychotherapy in relapse prevention for alcohol dependent patients.

The effects of brief group psychotherapy in relapse prevention were tested. The groups focused on the clients' capacity to formulate their own treatment goals, including controlled drinking, programmed relapse, and total abstinence. Twelve months after completion of the eight-week outpatient group treatment, thirty-five clients were followed up. There appeared to be no harmful effects as a result of the treatment. Nobody in the follow-up group had a deteriorated drinking pattern as compared to pretreatment data. The follow-up results were significantly better than before treatment and also than in a comparison group of alcohol dependent patients. It seemed as if those patients who could benefit from the treatment had a shorter duration of abuse and had a later onset of uncontrolled drinking compared to those who continued with a negative drinking pattern and the dropouts. The clients assigned the positive treatment effects to course leaders' encouragement of personal decision making, increased awareness of risk situations, and improved coping skills. The group situation in itself seemed to be of special importance for this result. The degree of structure implemented by course leaders allowed a free and respectful openness to develop between group members.

Adult↗
PubMed1990

Efficacy expectations among alcohol-dependent patients--a Swedish version of the Situational Confidence Questionnaire.

The Situational Confidence Questionnaire (SCQ) developed by Annis (1986 A relapse prevention model for treatment of alcoholics. In Treating Addictive Behaviors. Processes of Change, Miller W. R. and Heather, N. eds, pp. 407-435. Plenum Press, New York) is an important assessment instrument for use in the treatment of alcoholism and particularly in relapse prevention. The SCQ was translated into Swedish and tested on 91 alcohol-dependent patients. A principal component analysis of the item responses resulted in a shortened 35-item version of the SCQ with satisfactory test-retest reliability, internal consistency and scale specificity. Instead of eight relapse situation categories the analysis resulted in four categories with lower intercorrelations than in the original SCQ. The components were: (1) unpleasant emotions; (2) social pressure; (3) testing personal control; and (4) positive emotional states. In a one-way ANOVA only the Social Pressure scale had a significant relationship with severity of alcohol problems.

Alcoholism↗
PubMed1985

Detecting early signs of alcohol problems: a clinical application of an interview method.

In this study a simple interview method to identify patients with potential alcohol problems was tested in a clinical setting. Nurses interviewed an unbiased sample of 393 patients attending practices within occupational health care. The technique used was a day by day follow back procedure covering the preceding two weeks. The time needed to accomplish the interviews varied between 2 and 15 minutes, depending on how much alcohol consumption was reported. Nurses and doctors reported that the interview was easily integrated in daily working routines. When defining the limit of high consumption as more than 200 g absolute alcohol for the two week period, 11% of the group studied (17% among men and 2% among women) were regarded as high consumers. Strategies for confronting and motivating patients for further analysis of their alcohol habits and for treatment are discussed.

Alcohol Drinking↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Feasibility of brief intermention in the workplace for the detection and treatment of excessive alcohol consumption.

The aim of this study was to see whether brief intervention, a method used in the health care services, can be useful in the workplace. At routine health check-ups carried out by the occupational health service (OHS), employees were offered the opportunity to check their alcohol-use habits. Of the 333 employees who were offered alcohol-use screening, only six (2%) failed to participate. Of the remaining 327, 21% (n=68) screened positive for excessive alcohol consumption and were contacted by the OHS. The majority of these, 43 (62%), accepted a further check-up of their alcohol consumption. A much higher percentage of those who were contacted by telephone (80%) than those who were contacted by letter (17%) subsequently came to the OHS. One probable spin-off effect of the project was that 23 persons outside the screened group contacted the OHS about their alcohol abuse problems. The results indicate that it is feasible to use screening and secondary preventive methods at the workplace to discover alcohol abuse.

Adult↗