Clinical and Psychosocial Characteristics of HIV-Positive and HIV-Negative Females with Opiate Dependence

https://gexinonline.com/archive/journal-of-public-health-issues-and-practices/JPHIP-140

Clinical and Psychosocial Characteristics of HIV-Positive and HIV-Negative Females with Opiate Dependence

Journal of Public Health Issues and Practices Volume 2 (2018), Article ID: JPHIP-140

The objective of the study was to explore the clinical-psychological and social characteristics of injecting drugs women users (IDWU) with opiate dependence with different HIV status living on the territory of the Republic of Belarus based on multi-dimensional assessment of opiate dependence dynamics in order to develop therapeutic measures for relapse prevention and achievement of the long-term remission.
Materials and methods: Totally 217 IDWU were examined. The research cohort was randomized into 2 groups: HIV-positive women (HPW) (104 persons, mean age 30.8 years (SD=4.86) and HIV-negative women (HNW) (113 persons, mean age 29.9 years (SD=6.67). The level of patients social functioning, quality of life, craving for narcotic substances were studied by means of the Scale of the social and functioning, SF-36 and the Scale of the craving for drugs. The particularities of the social functioning and life quality of women with opiate addiction and different HIV status were described.
The results: show that the majority of IDWU were characterized by frequent work replacement and labor skipping (27/25.9% in HPW group vs 30/26.5% in HNW group; P>0.05). 21 /20.1% HPW vs 15/13.2% HNW (P<0.05) was characterized by low qualification, 43/43.3% HPW vs 41/36.2% HNW (P>0.05) - vocational education. HPW have more severely impaired psychosocial parameters compared to HNW. Family climate can be described as hostile aggressive (84/80.7% in HNW group vs 69/61.0% in HNW group; P<0.05). For women of both groups were characteristic parental alcohol abuse (18/17.3% in HPW vs 16/14.1% in HNW; P>0.05), and high level of parental divorces (24/23.1% in HPW vs 32/28.3% in HNW; P>0.05). It was found that the treatment itself allows to diminish the problems associated with drug use and HIV infection. Nevertheless, the short-term treatment course can only provide the clinical improvement but not stabilization of psychosomatic state of HIV-positive patients with opiate dependence.