title: Quality of life improved following in-patient substance use disorder treatment.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Quality of life (QoL) is increasingly recognized as central to the broad construct of recovery in patients with substance use disorders (SUD). However, few longitudinal studies have evaluated changes in QoL after SUD treatment and included patients with SUD that were compulsorily hospitalized. This study aimed to describe QoL among in-patients admitted either voluntarily or compulsorily to hospitalization and to examine patterns and predictors of QoL at admission and at 6 months post treatment.
  
  
  METHODS
  This prospective study followed 202 hospitalized patients with SUD that were admitted voluntarily (N=137) or compulsorily (N=65). A generic QoL questionnaire (QoL-5) was used to assess QoL domains. Regression analysis was conducted to identify associations with QoL at baseline and to examine predictors of change in QoL at a 6-month follow-up.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The majority of patients had seriously impaired QoL. Low QoL at baseline was associated with a high psychiatric symptom burden. Fifty-eight percent of patients experienced a positive QoL change at follow-up. Although the improvement in QoL was significant, it was considered modest (a mean 0.06 improvement in QoL-5 scores at follow-up; 95% confidence interval: 0.03 - 0.09; p<0.001). Patients admitted voluntarily and compulsorily showed QoL improvements of similar magnitude. Female gender was associated with a large, clinically relevant improvement in QoL at follow-up.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  In-patient SUD treatment improved QoL at six month follow-up. These findings showed that QoL measurements were useful for providing evidence of therapeutic benefit in the SUD field.
authors.affiliation: Addiction Unit, Sørlandet Hospital HF, PO Box 416, 4604, Kristiansand, Norway. adrian.razvan.pasareanu@sshf.no.
authors.forename: Adrian R
authors.initials: AR
authors.lastname: Pasareanu
authors.affiliation: Addiction Unit, Sørlandet Hospital HF, PO Box 416, 4604, Kristiansand, Norway. anne.opsal@uia.no.|University of Agder, Kristiansand, Norway. anne.opsal@uia.no.
authors.forename: Anne
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Opsal
authors.affiliation: Addiction Unit, Sørlandet Hospital HF, PO Box 416, 4604, Kristiansand, Norway. john-kare.vederhus@sshf.no.
authors.forename: John-Kåre
authors.initials: JK
authors.lastname: Vederhus
authors.affiliation: Addiction Unit, Sørlandet Hospital HF, PO Box 416, 4604, Kristiansand, Norway. oistein.kristensen@sshf.no.
authors.forename: Øistein
authors.initials: Ø
authors.lastname: Kristensen
authors.affiliation: Addiction Unit, Sørlandet Hospital HF, PO Box 416, 4604, Kristiansand, Norway. thomas.clausen@medisin.uio.no.|Norwegian Center for Addiction Research, University of Oslo, Oslo, Norway. thomas.clausen@medisin.uio.no.
authors.forename: Thomas
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Clausen
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D005260:Female; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D006304:Health Status; D006801:Humans; D008137:Longitudinal Studies; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D011446:Prospective Studies; D011788:Quality of Life / Q000523:psychology*; D012737:Sex Factors; D019966:Substance-Related Disorders / Q000523:psychology* / Q000534:rehabilitation*; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D016896:Treatment Outcome