Related Experiment Videos
Methadone maintenance as HIV risk reduction with street-recruited injecting drug users
1Department of Psychiatry, University of Colorado School of Medicine, Denver, Colorado 80206, USA. carol.kwiatkowski@uchsc.edu
Objective:
To compare changes in HIV risk behaviors between street-recruited opiate injectors who entered and remained in methadone maintenance treatment and those who did not.
Methods:
Three hundred sixteen participants were interviewed at baseline, received outreach interventions, and were interviewed again 6 months later.
Results:
Significant (p <.001) reductions in HIV-related risk behaviors, including frequency of injecting, injecting with used (dirty) needles, and sharing injection paraphernalia, were demonstrated. Participants (31%) who entered and remained in methadone maintenance treatment for at least 90 days before follow-up showed a significantly greater reduction in heroin injections than those who did not. They did not show a greater reduction in using dirty needles or sharing other injection paraphernalia.
Conclusions:
These findings suggest that although methadone maintenance may reduce injection frequency, it does not reduce other HIV-related risk behaviors above and beyond what can be accomplished through outreach interventions. Treatment facilities and outreach intervention programs should collaborate to provide a comprehensive approach to reducing HIV risk behaviors among drug injectors both in and out of drug treatment.