Long term institutional or residential treatment of patients with substance abuse compared to short-term outpatient treatment (updated literature search)

Key message

The Norwegian Health Directorate commissioned the Norwegian Knowledge Centre for the Health Services to conduct a systematic literature search with subsequent sorting of relevant publications. The task was to identify new studies published after the Knowledge Centre’s report (2009) about the effect of long-term treatment for patients with substance abuse.

Results

• The search for systematic reviews resulted in a total of 29 references. One was considered possibly relevant but it was excluded after full text reading.
• The search for primary studies gave 410 hits, and 5 were considered possibly relevant. After full text reading, all were excluded.
• This update has not found any new systematic reviews or randomized controlled studies  published after the Knowledge Centre’s report from 2009, and we refer to this