U-FOLD is all set to highlight the challenges of addiction at Almedalen Week 2025

U-FOLD has presented its program at Almedalen Week 2025. With five topical seminars, Uppsala University's Forum for research on addiction is all set to address a number of challenges that concern our entire society. The panels gather a selection of Sweden's leading experts in their field who will together set the directions for a sustainable future.

”Being a hub for addiction related issues, it is natural for us to be where the societal debate is. We will arrive in Visby from an intensive season with several relevant discussions that we are now ready to highlight on the Almedalen agenda, and we will do it with an effective program that I am convinced will make an impact,” says Mathias Hallberg, Professor and Chair of U-FOLD.

U-FOLD starts its engagement at Campus Gotland on Tuesday 24 June with the seminar How can we reduce the recruitment of young people into gang crime? Violence has become an unwelcome feature of our everyday lives, with the number of shootings still reaching high levels and Sweden suffering from 37 bombings in January alone. The problem is deepened by the fact that the perpetrators are continuously getting younger: recently, 113 adolescents aged 15 to 17 were held in custody on suspicion of murder and other violent crimes.

”Young people are currently exposed to large amounts of information in several different arenas. Unfortunately, criminal gangs are also active there with the aim to recruit new members at a young age. Therefore, it is necessary that we tell our children and teens about the risks they may face, and here we in the police have a priority responsibility. We also work actively to create room for those who have already entered the gang world to leave, and it is important to show the possibilities that society offers those who have gone astray and want to get back on track,” states Jale Poljarevius, Police Chief and Regional Intelligence Director who will participate in the panel.

Wednesday 25 June, U-FOLD invites to the seminar Gamification, dopamine & the dream of becoming rich. The discussion will take off in the numerous studies showing that many young people in their pursuit of financial wealth engage in online games for money. Several companies attract this target group via gamification, a phenomenon that can be compared to the experience of traditional computer games, where rewards are awarded in the form of fictitious points or virtual currency that can be exchanged for other rewards.

”A central ingredient in gamification is to trigger the brain's reward system via dopamine, which increases the risk to develop addiction. The gaming industry uses this technology to attract and retain players, often through smaller rewards that gradually loosen the line between harmless fun and real danger. This exposes young people in particular, whose brains are not fully developed, to the risk of ending up in dangerous gambling, and in Almedalen we will meet to pinpoint useful strategies to break negative patterns,” says Fred Nyberg, Senior professor and Advisor in U-FOLD.

On site in Almedalen, U-FOLD also highlights drugs influence on mental health and premature death, occupation and alcohol habits, and whether it is possible to create a society where reduced alcohol consumption generates both individual health benefits and positive social effects. The experts participating in the talks include Lotta Borg Skoglund, senior physician at SMART psychiatry, Zophia Mellgren, expert at the Ministry of Health and Welfare, Charlotta Rehnman and Mats Ramstedt, Director and Research manager at CAN, and Håkan Eriksson, Secretary General at the Swedish National Council for Alcohol and Drug Issues.

”This is U-FOLD's 13th summer in Almedalen, and along the way we have established our forum as an attractive arena for both researchers, experts, opinion leaders and policy makers from different parts of the fields of addiction. Now we are finetuning our program with the ambition to create constructive dialogue, provide extra inspiration in our joint work and, above all, generate valuable tools to meet the challenges we face,” states Mathias Hallberg.

Text: Magnus Alsne, photo: Mikael Wallerstedt a o