I am a clinical psychologist by training and my research interests include causes, consequences, and treatment of substance use disorders and related psychopathology. I am currently involved in a consortium project investigating the prevalence of substance use disorders in Nordic prison populations (https://www.prisud.no/). My second line of research focuses on evaluating the effectiveness of psychological and pharmacological substance use disorder treatments in Swedish correctional services, including prison, probation and forensic psychiatric settings. This research is funded by the Swedish Research Council for Health, Working Lifeand Welfare.

I am also affiliated with the Department of Medical Epidemiology and Biostatistics at the Karolinska Institutet in Sweden (https://ki.se/en/people/suvi-maria-virtanen)

Education
PhD in Psychology, University of Helsinki (2021)
MA in Psychology, University of Helsinki (2018)
MSSc in Economic and Social History, University of Helsinki (2017)
BSSc in Economic and Social History, minor in Psychology, University of Helsinki (2015)

Funding and Awards
Early Career Excellence Award, European College of Neuropsychopharmacology (2022)
Postdoctoral Fellowship, Swedish Research Council for Health, Working Life and Welfare (2022)
Finalist for the title of “Young Epidemiologist of the Year”, Finnish Epidemiology Society (2021)
Studentship (salaried position) at the Doctoral Programme in Population Health, University of Helsinki (2020)