Medication Free Treatment: Characteristics, Justification and Outcome

Summary

In 2015 the Norwegian government, after initiative from user organizations, decided to implement medication free inpatient treatment units. The goal is to secure real options to medication for psychiatric illness, and to gather experiences with medication free options. Freedom of choice is a main concern.

The projects main aim is to study the outcome of medication free treatments of mental illness compared to treatment as usual, as well as characteristics of the treatment and the treatment population and why patients choose this treatment. Hereunder we aim to document who asks for these kinds of services and why, what kind of treatment they get, how they experience it, and how they respond to this kind of treatment. An important part will be to document whether the goal of increased freedom of choice between real treatment options is fulfilled.

Research questions

1. Does medication free treatment differ from treatment as usual? Are there any unique characteristics of the patient group who asks for this kind of treatment? What kind of treatment do they receive during their stay? How do they experience this treatment in comparison to treatment as usual? How is this in relation to the goals about increased freedom of choice? Does use of medication change during and/or after medication free treatment?
2. Why do patients choose medication free treatment? What are their reasons? What experiences lead to this wish?
3. What is the outcome of medication free treatment compared to treatment as usual?

Conditions

• Mental Illness

Interventions

BEHAVIORAL

Medication free treatment

Inpatient unit dedicated to medication free treatment. This is an inpatient treatment unit for voluntary, planned treatment. The unit is staffed for a patient group that can be managed within a regime of open doors, voluntary treatment and low supervision. This means that high suicidal risk, severe acting out, active drug abuse etc. is excluded. They have an 8 week treatment program including Illness managment an recovery (IMR), Feedback informed treatment (FIT) and Affect consciousness treatment (ABT).

BEHAVIORAL

Treatment as usual Myrvegen

Inpatient unit on a different location from the others. Same Level of care. Different treatment program. Intermediate treatment duration (mainly 4-6 weeks).

BEHAVIORAL

Treatment as usual Åråsen

Unit colocated with the medication free unit. Similar treatment program. Short treatment duration (average 3 weeks).

Sponsors & Collaborators

• University of Oslo

  collaborator OTHER

• University Hospital, Akershus

  lead OTHER

Principal Investigators

• Kristin Heiervang, PhD · Akershus universitetssykehus

Eligibility

Min Age

18 Years

Max Age

100 Years

Sex

ALL

Healthy Volunteers

No

Timeline & Regulatory

Start

2018-05-14

Primary Completion

2023-04-01

Completion

2023-04-01

Countries

• Norway

Study Locations