Differences in Polysubstance Use Patterns & Drug-Related Outcomes between People Who Inject Drugs Receiving & Not Receiving Opioid Substitution Therapies
AIMS:
To test if
polysubstance use profiles and drug-related outcomes differ between those
receiving and not receiving opioid substitution therapies (OST), among people
who inject drugs (PWID).
DESIGN:
An annual
cross-sectional, sentinel sample of PWID across Australia
Data came
from three years (2011-2013) of the Illicit Drug Reporting System (IDRS).
PARTICIPANTS:
A
total of 2,673 participants who injected drugs from the combined national IDRS
samples of 2011 (n = 868), 2012 (n = 922), and 2013 (n = 883)
Latent Class Analysis (LCA) was used to summarise participants' self-reported
use of 18 types of substances, with the resulting polysubstance use profiles
then associated with participant experience of a number of drug-related
outcomes.
FINDINGS:
Polysubstance
use profiles exhibiting a broad-range of substance use were generally at
increased risk of negative drug-related outcomes whether participants were
receiving OST or not: including thrombosis among OST receivers [odds ratio
(OR)=2.13, 95% confidence intervals (CI) = 1.09-4.17], injecting with used
needle among OST receivers and non-receivers respectively, and violent criminal offences among
OST receivers and non-receivers respectively. An important exception was non-fatal overdose
which was specifically related to a class of PWID who were not receiving OST
and used morphine frequently.
CONCLUSION:
Regardless
of opioid substitution therapies usage, people who inject drugs (PWID) who use
a broad-range of substances experience greater levels of injecting-related
injuries and poorer health outcomes and are more likely to engage in criminal
activity than other groups of PWID.
- 1School of Population Health, The University of Queensland, 4th floor, Public Health Building, Herston Rd, Herston, QLD, 4006, Australia.
- 2Centre for Youth Substance Abuse, University of Queensland, Brisbane, Australia.
- 3QADREC, School of Population Health Building, University of Queensland, Brisbane.
- 4MacFarlane Burnet Institute for Medical and Public Health Research, Melbourne, Australia.
- 5National Drug and Alcohol Centre, University of New South Wales, NSW, 2052, Australia.
- 6School of Public Health and Centre for Youth Substance Abuse Research, University of Queensland, Brisbane, Australia.
- Addiction. 2016 Feb 8. doi: 10.1111/add.13339.
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