SoRAD was established at Stockholm University to strengthen and support Swedish social science research on alcohol and drugs. It became active in 1999, and quickly grew in research efforts and reputation, while experiencing setbacks around 2006 and 2017. In 2018 SoRAD merged with the Centre for Health Equity Studies (CHESS), to form a new Department of Public Health Sciences.

The research activities on alcohol and other drugs and gambling behaviour and problems may be categorised into four main areas:

• Social epidemiology
• Subcultures and social worlds of use and heavy use
• Policy formation, implementation and societal responses
• Societal and other collective definitions of problems and solutions

During the last decades, gambling excessively for money has been increasingly recognized as a problem (often referred to as "problem gambling", “gambling disorder” or "pathological gambling") in most parts of the world, especially in countries where the opportunities to gamble have expanded on the internet. At the same time, the ability to control domestic gambling through legislation, tax rules and other measures has decreased. With growing availability, there has also been an increasing need to understand the ensuing individual and social impacts of gambling.

REGAPS offers an overall coverage of topics of immediate interest in Swedish gambling research today, based on five different work packages.

The centre is led by a Director and by an external board.

SoRAD Board 2022

Chairman

Johan Edman, Department of Criminology, Stockholm University (SU)

Head of the Centre

Jessica Storbjörk, Department of Public Health Sciences, Stockholm University (SU)

Members

Robin Room, Centre for Alcohol Policy Research at Turning Point Alcohol and Drug Centre in Fitzroy, Victoria, Australia
Anna Bessö, the Public Health Agency of Sweden

Staff representative

Jonas Landberg, Department of Public Health Sciences, Stockholm University (SU)

List over SoRAD's publications about alcohol, narkotic, tobacco ans gambling, as part of the Department of Public Health Sciences from 2018 and onwards (Version from April 22, 2022)

SoRAD:s List of Publications (as of April 22, published June 3, 2022) (484 Kb)

Research reports

Reports (ISSN 1650-5441) - Link to DiVA

Earlier publications

SoRAD's publications 1999-2017 - link to DiVA