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Drug Use and Medication Adherence among HIV-1 Infected Individuals

2006; Springer Science+Business Media; Volume: 11; Issue: 2 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1007/s10461-006-9152-0

1573-3254

Charles H. Hinkin, Terry R. Barclay, Steven A. Castellon, Andrew J. Levine, Ramani Durvasula, Sarah Marion, Héctor F. Myers, Douglas Longshore,

HIV-related health complications and treatments

This longitudinal study examined the impact of drug use and abuse on medication adherence among 150 HIV-infected individuals, 102 who tested urinalysis positive for recent illicit drug use. Medication adherence was tracked over a 6-month period using an electronic monitoring device (MEMS caps). Over the 6-month study drug-positive participants demonstrated significantly worse medication adherence than did drug-negative participants (63 vs. 79%, respectively). Logistic regression revealed that drug use was associated with over a fourfold greater risk of adherence failure. Stimulant users were at greatest risk for poor adherence. Based upon within-participants analyses comparing 3-day adherence rates when actively using versus not using drugs, this appears to be more a function of state rather than trait. These data suggest that it is the acute effects of intoxication, rather than stable features that may be characteristic of the drug-using populace, which leads to difficulties with medication adherence.