BACKGROUND Increasing numbers of injecting drug users are presenting to primary care and a growing number of general practices are specifically providing care for homeless people. Injecting drug users are at the greatest risk of hepatitis C infection and homeless drug misusers, because of their drug-taking behaviour and patterns, have been identified as being at greater risk of harm of blood-bo...

BACKGROUND Childhood trauma has been reported as a possible cause of future substance abuse in some countries. This study reports the prevalence of childhood trauma and examines its association with psychological distress among injecting drug users from mainland China. METHODOLOGY The study was conducted in three government-operated drug rehabilitation facilities in Shanghai, China in 2007. T...

There is evidence that HIV-positive injecting drug users benefit less than other risk groups from highly active antiretroviral therapy that has been available since 1996. In this multicentre European study the impact of the availability of highly active antiretroviral therapy on the progression rates to AIDS and death among injecting drug users with a documented date of HIV seroconversion is st...

The geopolitical uniqueness of the regional, socioeconomic situation and the existence of territories outside the control of the national government have facilitated the spread of drug use in Georgia. A special problem is injection of opiates, in particular heroin and Subutex (buprenorphine). It has been established that among registered HIV infected individuals the main route of transmission i...

Background: Positive perfectionism helps the individual to experience fewer worries and less anxiety. The aim of the present study was to assess the value of coping strategies to predict perfectionism in drug-user women. Methods: This cross-sectional study was performed on 361 consecutive drug-user women who were randomly selected from a total of 6237 women referring to the Drug Abuse Centers o...

This study examines the prevalence of public injecting and willingness to use drug consumption rooms (DCRs) among UK needle exchange programme (NEP) attendees. Three hundred and one injecting drug users (IDUs) were surveyed using a brief questionnaire across five NEPs in London and Leeds between April and June 2005. Injection in a public place in the past week was reported by 55% of the sample ...

A cross-sectional study was performed to explore the behaviour of female intravenous drug users (lOUs) in Madrid, Spain, to determine the relationships between behaviour and a number of dependent variables. We considered: l.Sociodemographic characteristics Drug-taking behaviour, sexual behavior (including prostitution), reproductive health, and utilisation of services targeted at female IDUs. 2...

BACKGROUND Injecting frequency among people who inject drugs (IDU) can change along distinct trajectories, which can reflect on incidence of HIV and HCV infections. We aimed at assessing these patterns of longitudinal changes, their predictors and their association with the incidence of HIV and HCV. METHODS We analyzed data from the Amsterdam Cohort Study among Drug Users, selecting participa...

BACKGROUND Injecting drug use is associated with considerable morbidity and mortality. Estimates of the size of the population of people who inject drugs are critical to inform service planning and estimate disease burden due to injecting drug use. We aimed to estimate the size of the population of people who inject drugs in Australia. METHODS We applied a multiplier method which used benchma...