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Due to copyright issues, an electronic copy of the thesis must be ordered from the faculty. For the faculty to have time to process the order, the order must be received by the faculty at the latest 2 days before the public defence. Orders received later than 2 days before the defence will not be processed. After the public defence, please address any inquiries regarding the thesis to the candidate.
Trial Lecture – time and place
See Trial Lecture.
Adjudication committee
- First opponent: Professor Joshua D. Lee, NYU Grossman School of Medicine, USA
- Second opponent: Professor Lars Lien, University of Inland Norway
- Third member and chair of the evaluation committee: Professor Ingrid Amalia Havnes, University of Oslo
Chair of the Defence
Professor Emeritus Helge Waal, University of Oslo
Principal Supervisor
Researcher and Chief Physician Jon Mordal, Vestfold Hospital Trust
Summary
Extended‑release naltrexone is an effective monthly injectable treatment for opioid use disorder, yet it remains underutilized compared with opioid agonist therapies such as methadone and buprenorphine.
One key reason for its limited use is concern about pain management. This dissertation, which is part of the NaltRec study, examined the associations between pain intensity, genetic variations (COMT rs4680 and OPRM1 rs1799971), and extended‑release naltrexone treatment outcomes over a 24‑week period in individuals with opioid use disorder.
The findings indicate that genetic variation has minor impact on extended‑release naltrexone treatment outcomes and that treatment with extended‑release naltrexone did not increase pain intensity, with pain improvements observed in some subgroups.
These results support broader implementation of extended‑release naltrexone in opioid use disorder treatment and may contribute to its clinical approval in Norway.
Additional information
Contact the research support staff.