Dr Tuuli Pitkanen

Tuuli Pitkänen (PhD) works as senior researcher at the Järvenpää Addiction Hospital with research manager Jouni Tourunen (D.Sos.Sc) and researcher Teemu Kaskela. Previously Pitkänen has studied the developmental antecedents of alcohol drinking behaviour. She has analyzed longitudinal and register data at the Jyväskylä Longitudinal Study of Personality and Social Development (led by prof. Pulkkinen) and at the Follow-up Study of Mental Health of Young Adults (led by prof. Lönnqvist and Poikolainen). She has published international articles, also within the framework of the Center for the Analysis of Pathways from Childhood to Adulthood (CAPCA), coordinated by the University of Michigan. Currently she works on the promotion of the study of treatment and service systems for substance abusers and their families. She is actively taking part to four larger projects:

– Opioid substitution treatment in Finland

– A follow-up study based on criminal and patient record data of 10 000 patients attending substance abuse treatment 1990-2009

– Integrating health and social services into the environments of childhood growth from birth to starting school: the development and evaluation of a family services model by means of a cluster controlled trial design (in cooperation with researcher at National Institute for Health and Welfare)

– Psychosocial factors relevant to brain disorders in Europe (in cooperation of nine European research centers).