Solja Niemelä
Professor (Addiction Medicine)
solnie@utu.fi +358 40 528 1725 Kiinamyllynkatu 13 Turku : C5010 |
Addiction Medicine; Addiction Psychiatry; Psychosis and substance use; Dual Diagnosis; Substance-induced Psychosis; Prescription Medicine Misuse; Epidemiology
PRESENT POSITION
Professor (Addiction Medicine), Department of Psychiatry, University of Turku, 1.3.2023 -
Senior Physician, Addiction Psychiatry Unit, Turku University Hospital, Finland, 1.8.2018 -
EDUCATION AND TRAINING
Licentiate of Medicine (MD), University of Oulu, 1996
Specialist in Psychiatry, University of Turku, 2003
Special competence in Addiction Medicine, Finnish Medical Association, 2005
Doctor of Medical Sciences (PhD), University of Turku, 2008
Adjunct Professor (Psychiatry), University of Turku, 2011
Special competence in Medical Education, Finnish Medical Association, 2012
My research group Turku Psychosis and Substance Use (TuPSU) focuses on epidemiology of substance use and psychosis.
We aim to utilize national and regional register-based datasets, which enable to study substance-induced psychosis and co-occuring substance use among persons with psychotic disorders with minimal attrition, in these otherwise difficult-to-reach populations.
The ongoing reserarch projects include e.g.:
- Substance-induced psychosis in Swedish national registeries (SIP-project). In collaboration with senior reseacher Heidi Taipale from the Karolinska Instute, Stockholm. Sweden
- Substance use in the Turku University Hospital Datalake. Extensive patient record -based dataset with over 34,000 persons with substance-use-related admission at the Turku University Hospital.
- Substance use and dual diagnosis in the Finnish SUPER study including 10, 470 patients with psychotic disorders. In collaboration with Molecular Medicine Finland (FIMM), University of Helsinki and the Finnish Institute for Health and Welfare (THL).
- Health Survey of Finnish Prisoners (WATTU IV). In collaboration with National Health Instutute (THL).
- Alcohol use, daily smoking, clozapine use and psychiatric symptom profile in persons with schizophrenia spectrum disorder (2026)
- Nordic Journal of Psychiatry
- Alkoholin ongelmallinen käyttö on yleisintä 50-69-vuotiaiden joukossa (2026)
- Duodecim
- Antipsychotic use and associating factors among persons with substance-induced psychosis and first-episode psychotic disorder- A nationwide register-linkage study (2026)
- Schizophrenia Research
- At the extreme limits of L-DOPA therapy: probable dopamine dysregulation and psychiatric complications in Parkinson’s disease (2026)
- BMJ neurology open
- Comparative Clinical Trajectories Across Cannabis‐Related and Nonsubstance‐Related Psychoses (2026)
- Acta Psychiatrica Scandinavica
- Help-Seeking for Problematic Cannabis Use Among Young People: A Qualitative Study with Professionals and People with Lived Experience (2026)
- Substance Use and Misuse
- Optimizing antipsychotic dosing for relapse prevention in cannabis-induced psychosis: A nationwide cohort study (2026)
- Psychiatry Research
- Päihteet ja riippuvuushäiriöt (2026) Psykiatria Levola, Jonna; Lönnqvist, Jouko; Niemelä, Solja
- Predictive validity of Alcohol Use Disorder Identification Test – Consumption (AUDIT‐C) for register‐based alcohol‐attributable events among general‐population men and women of different ages (2026)
- Addiction
- Stimulant‐induced psychosis requires the same clinical priority as other psychotic disorders (2026)
- Addiction



