Scope and research focus

With an overall aim towards improving patient outcomes of the psychological treatment of substance use and mental health disorders, our overarching research questions are: 

• How do people change in psychotherapy - what changes, when, under what circumstances, and why? 
• How can the process of change be facilitated - by adapting existing treatment paradigms to incorporate new knowledge, and with the aid of novel interventions? 
• How can negative treatment outcomes such as premature dropout be avoided – what are the risk factors of negative treatment process and outcome? 

Collaborating closely with the practice field and adapting a whole-person perspective with a particular focus on patient resources, our objective is to generate clinically relevant and actionable knowledge. Our research projects are centered around the routine clinical use of patient-reported outcome measures such as the Norse Feedback. Research methodologies include quantitative longitudinal analyses and diverse qualitative methods. 

Clincial collaboration partners:

• Clinic of Substance Use and Addiciton Medicine, St. Olavs Hospital, Trondheim
• Nidelv Hospital Mental Health Center, St. Olavs Hospital, Trondheim
• Clinic of Mental Health and Substance Use, Møre og Romsdal Health Trust, Molde Treatment Center and Ålesund Treatment Center
• Clinic of Mental Health Care, Section for Substance Use and Addiction (ARA), Nord-Trøndelag Health Trust, Namsos Hospital

Ongoing and planned studies

• FRAM – Feedbackverktøy ved ruslidelser, avhengighet og mental helseproblematikk: A multicenter naturalistic longitudinal study of routinely collected session-by-session Norse Feedback process and outcome data from N=700 patients in substance use and mental health disorder treatment across five clinics, coupled with session attendance data, diagnoses and demographics. 
• Points of departure: A qualitative study exploring relational facilitators and barriers in the first treatment session from the perspective of both patients and therapists.
• Response processes for patients providing quantitative self-report data: A qualitative study of the reasoning process involved when patients in substance use treatment respond to a clinical feedback system. 
• Norse Impact: A qualitative innovation study aimed at developing and testing a digital personalized treatment support tool for young adults with substance use problems.
• Microprocesses of relational work: A mixed-methods study of how therapists and patients work to establish a collaborative relationship, as observed in video recordings of treatment session in substance use treatment and in-depth interviews of patients and therapists.

Peer-reviewed scientific publications

Grindheim, Øyvind Kyrre; Moltu, Christian; Iversen, Valentina Maria do R.Cabral; Mcaleavey, Andrew Athan; Tømmervik, Kristin; Govasmark, Hege. (2024) Points of departure: A qualitative study exploring relational facilitators and barriers in the first treatment session. Psychotherapy Research, 35, 155 – 169. 

Grindheim, Øyvind Kyrre; Mcaleavey, Andrew Athan; Iversen, Valentina Maria Do Rosario Cab; Moltu, Christian; Tømmervik, Kristin; Govasmark, Hege. (2024) Response processes for patients providing quantitative self-report data: a qualitative study. Quality of Life Research, 33, 2949 – 2961. 

Research conference presentations 

Brattland, Heidi; Fernández-Regueras, Diego; Moltu, Christian; Mcaleavey, Andrew Athan. (2024) Preliminary results from a longitudinal multicenter study of Routine Outcome Monitoring (ROM) data. Society for Psychotherapy Research 6th joint European and UK Society for Psychotherapy Research (SPR) chapters conference , Brno, Tsjekkia 2024-09-12 - 2024-09-14

Fernández-Regueras, Diego; Mcaleavey, Andrew Athan; Grindheim, Øyvind Kyrre; Moltu, Christian; Brattland, Heidi. (2024) Longitudinal analysis of early change in therapy: link between treatment outcomes & therapeutic relationship in SUD. . Society for Psychotherapy Research 55th Annual International Meeting of the Society for Psychotherapy Research , Ottawa, Canada 2024-06-26 - 2024-06-29

Brattland, Heidi; Grindheim, Øyvind Kyrre; Moltu, Christian; Fernández-Regueras, Diego; Mcaleavey, Andrew Athan. (2024) Investigating change in the treatment of substance use disordersA longitudinal multicenter study of routinely collected process and outcome data. Society for Psychotherapy Research 55th Annual International Meeting of the Society for Psychotherapy Research , Ottawa, Canada 2024-06-26 - 2024-06-29

Grindheim, Øyvind Kyrre; Moltu, Christian; Iversen, Valentina Maria do R.Cabral; McAleavey, Andrew; Tømmervik, Kristin; Govasmark, Hege. (2023) How do patients and therapists experience the first treatment session?. Society for Psychotherapy Research SPR 54th International Annual Meeting , Dublin 2023-06-20 - 2023-06-24

Science communication and outreach (selected)

Ulriksen, V. D. (2024, July 30). Åpen dialog forebygger frafall ved rusbehandling (interview with Øyvind Grindheim). Korus. 

Brattland, H. (2024). Hva skjer på Instituttet? (interview). Psykologisk Tidsskrift 27(2), s. 8-9.