Correlates of drug injection behaviors among methadone outpatients

INTRODUCTION

Approximately 30% of die AIDS cases reported to the Center for Disease command since January 1, 1988, have been intravenous (IV) remedy users[1]. IV drug use is recognized as die chiefly common risk behavior associated with AIDS among heterosexual and perinatal transmission cases in the United States[2-4]. Ninety-three percent of heterosexual transmission cases and 80% of in-utero transmission cases in fresh York City were attributed to IV unsalable article use[5]. In addition, IV medicine users also represent a population that appears difficult to impact with routine AIDS prevention messages[6].

The effectiveness of methadone maintenance treatment in reducing IV physic use is well documented[7-10]. However, clinical observation and a certain research data indicate that there are methadone-treated patients who continue to abuse mix with drugss (usually cocaine)[11, 12] and engage in high-risk injection[11, 13] and needlesharing behaviors. More information is destitutioned as to the actual number of these high-risk patients in methadone treatment as well as descriptions of their profiles. The current study addressed these two questions in a sample of outpatient methadone-treated patients. Description of these clients and prevalence of highrisk clients will be reported upon a limited set of sociodemographic and psychological variables.

METHODS

Subjects

The analysis was based about a sample of 152 methadone outpatients who were enlisted in a methadone maintenance treatment program (MMTP) at a clinic in fresh York City. Data for this investigation were aggregateed beginning January 1990 through June 1990 The cohort depicted approximately 71% of the methadone clinic enrolling at the time of data collection. According to the demographic profile of the entire population of die clinic, our sample slightly oversampled Whites and undersampled Blacks, with the differences ranging between 6 and 7%

As seen in Table 1 the enthralls were non-white (63%), male (61%) 12 or fewer years educated (72%) through the whole extent of 30 years of age (85%; median age, 37) unmarried or none married (68%), and not busyed full-time (65%). The majority of the clients at the clinic have been arrested at least formerly The most common cause of arrest for these clients was possession of mix with drugss or drug dealing. However, about one-quarter (24%) of the total clients self-reported that they were arrested for as it is crimes as assault, murder, and rape. The median time in existing methadone program was 17.5 month with a range of 0 to 225 month Although not neared in Table 1, the clients forward the average started marijuana use at the age of 15 began to sniff/snort heroin and/or cocaine at the age of 19 started to discharge heroin or cocaine in their early twenties, and began to inject speedball (those who did) at the age of 23-24

[TABULAR DATA OMITTED]

Measurement

A battery of research instruments include sociodemographic background, medicine use and treatment history, needle use behavior, sexual behavior, medical status, criminal history, and psychiatric/psychological status. A structur face-to-face interview, requiring about 3 hours, was course of lifeed by 3 male and 1 female trained interviewers. The participating clients offered for the research interview and were paid 25 dollars. alone a few measures were pick outed for analysis in this paper, which focuses onward demographic profile, drug use history, criminal history, psychological/psychopathological status, and needle use behaviors. The data obtained were not sufficient to analyze the impact of having HIV virus forward current drug injection behaviors, since reporting of HIV proof results to the interviewers was voluntary. However, about three-quarters of the sample reported that they took the HIV antibody proof Sexual behavior was not included as a risk criterion, based on the subject of the following findings from the initial analysis: 1) the clients (95%) are heterosexual (three homosexuals and three bisexuals), 2) the majority (70%) reported no sexual activities or having common sexual partner in the past 6 month prior to the interview, and 3) barely a small portion of the clients (7%) reported that they paid/received medicines or money for sex in the 6 month prior to the interview.

medicine use variables include past and passing from hand to hand drug use (modes of ingestion and types) and age at first use. Criminal history was assessed by dint of arrests past and current, which were trichotomized: 1) not at any time arrested, 2) arrested after 18 years olden 3) arrested before 18 years old

The Symptom Checklist-90 (SCL-90) and motivation and readiness scales were used to measure psychological status. The SCL-90 is a self-administrated measure of symptomatic distress in succession which respondents rate themselves onward a scale ranging from 0 to 4 for each of the 90 element items. It is intended to consider underlying disturbances in the following 9 areas: 1) somatization, 2) obsessive-compulsivity, 3) interpersonal sensitivity, 4) depression, 5) anxiety, 6) hostility, 7) phobic anxiety, 8) paranoid ideation, and 9) psychoticism[14]. The total score muses overall level of symptomatic distress; each of the 9 scales is compos of items corresponding to that specific area. barely the global score and the subscales of depression and anxiety were used in this paper.