Implication of gender differences in heroin-assisted treatment: results from the German randomized controlled trial

Police-related barriers to harm reduction linked to non-fatal overdose amongst sex workers who use drugs: Results of a community-based cohort in Metro Vancouver, Canada

BACKGROUND

High rates of overdose and overdose-related mortality in North America represent a pressing health and social concern. Women sex workers face severe health and social inequities, which have been linked to structural factors including negative police interactions; however, little is known regarding the burden of overdose or how policing impacts overdose risk amongst sex workers who use drugs. Given this, we aimed to explore the independent effects of experiencing police-related barriers to harm reduction on non-fatal overdose amongst women sex workers who use drugs in Metro Vancouver, Canada over a 7.5-year period.

METHODS

Data were drawn from An Evaluation of Sex Workers Health Access (AESHA), a community-based open prospective cohort of women sex workers in Metro Vancouver, from 2010 to 2017. Using multivariate logistic regression with generalized estimating equations (GEE), we used a confounder modeling approach to identify the independent effect of experiencing police-related barriers to harm reduction strategies on non-fatal overdose amongst sex workers using drugs within the last six months at each study visit.

RESULTS

Amongst 624 participants, 7.7% overdosed within the last six months at baseline and 27.6% overdosed during the study period, contributing 287 non-fatal overdose events over the 7.5-year period. 68.6% reported police-related barriers to harm reduction strategies during the study. In a multivariate confounder model, exposure to police-related barriers to harm reduction strategies [AOR: 2.15, CI: 1.60-2.90] was independently associated with higher odds of non-fatal overdose after adjustment for key confounders.

CONCLUSIONS

Our findings suggest that in the context of the current overdose crisis, adversarial policing practices may undermine access to lifesaving overdose prevention services and exacerbate overdose risks for marginalized women. Findings underscore the urgent need to scale-up access and remove barriers to progressive harm reduction strategies for women sex workers.

Sexual Functioning and Opioid Maintenance Treatment in Women. Results From a Large Multicentre Study

Opioid maintenance treatment (OMT) is the most widespread therapy for both females and males opioid addicts. While many studies have evaluated the OMT impact on men's sexuality, the data collected about the change in women's sexual functioning is still limited despite the fact that it is now well-known that opioids - both endogenous and exogenous - affect the endocrine system and play an important role in sexual functioning. The present study aims to determine how OMT with buprenorphine (BUP) or methadone (MTD) affects sexual health in women; examining also any possible emerging correlation between sexual dysfunction (SD), type of opioid and patients' mental health. This multi-center study case recruited 258 female volunteers attending Italian public Addiction Outpatients Centers that were stabilized with OMT for at least 3 months. SD was assessed with the Arizona Sexual Experience Scale. The twelve-item General Health Questionnaire was used to assess participants' mental health conditions. The results show that 56.6% of women receiving OMT for at least 3 months presented SD without significant differences between MTD e BUP groups. The majority of the subjects with SD have a poorer quality of intimate relationships and worse mental health than the average. To the best of our knowledge, the present study is the largest report on the presence of SDs in women as a side effects of MTD and BUP used in OMT. Since SDs cause difficulties in intimate relationships, lower patients' quality of life and interfere with OMT beneficial outcomes, we recommend that women undertaking an opioid therapy have routine screening for SD and we highlight the importance to better examine opioid-endocrine interactions in future studies in order to provide alternative potential treatments such as the choice of opioid, opioid dose reduction and hormone supplementation.

Men's and women's response to treatment and perceptions of outcomes in a randomized controlled trial of injectable opioid assisted treatment for severe opioid use disorder

Background

To test whether there are gender differences in treatment outcomes among patients receiving injectable opioids for the treatment of long-term opioid-dependence. The study additionally explores whether men and women have different perceptions of treatment effectiveness.

Methods

This study is a secondary analysis from SALOME, a double-blind, phase III, randomized controlled trial testing the non-inferiorirty of injectable hydromorphone to injectable diacetylmorphine among 202 long-term street opioid injectors in Vancouver (Canada). Given this was a secondary analysis, no a priori power calaculation was conducted. Differences in baseline characteristics and six-month treatment outcomes (illicit heroin use, opioid use, crack cocaine use, non-legal activities, physical and psychological health scores, urine positive for street heroin markers, and retention) were analysed by gender using fitted models. Responses to an open ended question on reasons for treatment effectiveness were explored with a thematic analysis.

Results

Men and women differed significantly on a number of characteristics at baseline. For example, women were significantly younger, presented to treatment with significantly higher rates of prior month sex work (31.5% vs. 0%), and used significantly more crack cocaine (14.71 vs. 8.38 days). After six-months of treatment there were no significant differences in treatment outcomes by gender, after adjusting for baseline values. For both men and women, improved health and quality of life were the most common reasons provided for treatment effectiveness, however women were more specific in the types of health improvements.

Conclusions

Despite presenting to treatment with vulnerabilities not faced to the same extent by men, at six-months women did not differ significantly from men in tested trial efficacy outcomes. While the primary outcome in the trial was the reduction of illicit opioid use, in the open-ended responses both men and women focused their comments on improvement in health and quality of life as reasons for treatment effectiveness. The supervised model of care with injectable medications provides a particularly suitable framework for providing care to opioid-dependent men and women not attracted or retained by other treatments. The absence of statistical differences reported in this secondary analysis may be due to lack of adequate statistical power to detect meaningful effects.

Trial registration

This trial is registered with ClinicalTrials.gov (NCT01447212) Registered: October 4, 2011 at the following link: https://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT01447212.

An Examination of Women Ex-Offenders With Methadone Histories

Criminal (drug and prostitution) charges, employment levels (weekly hours), recent substance use in the past 6 months, and primary sources of income were examined among a sample ( n = 106) of women ex-offenders who had opioid use disorders with and without methadone histories. A general linear model was tested to examine differences in relation to methadone use history. Results from a one-way MANCOVA found that those with methadone histories reported significantly higher levels of drug and prostitution charges than those without any methadone history, but no significant differences in terms of weekly hours of employment or recent substance use were observed between groups. Women ex-offenders with methadone histories reported various sources of income beyond employment, and proportionally, more of these women reported prostitution as a primary source of income. Findings suggest that methadone maintenance treatments are not sufficient in meeting the needs of women ex-offenders.

Generating trust: Programmatic strategies to reach women who inject drugs with harm reduction services in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania

BACKGROUND

Strong evidence supports the effectiveness of methadone-assisted therapy (MAT) to treat opioid dependence, reduce the risk of HIV transmission, and improve HIV related health outcomes among people who inject drugs (PWID). HIV prevalence reaches 71% in women who inject drugs (WWID) in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania; creating an urgent need for access to MAT. Despite the availability and potential benefits of treatment, few women have enrolled in services. This formative research sought to identify programmatic strategies to increase women's participation in outreach and their subsequent enrollment in MAT.

METHODS

We conducted twenty-five, in-depth interviews with patients and their providers at a MAT clinic. Open-ended interviews explored enrollment experiences, with a focus on contextual barriers and facilitators unique to women. Ethnographic observations of harm reduction education at outreach sites and the MAT clinic enriched interview data. Trust/mistrust emerged as an overarching theme cross cutting patient and provider accounts of the connective process to enroll PWID in the methadone program. We explore trust and mistrust in relationship to the interrelated themes of family loss, social isolation, vehement discrimination and motivation for treatment.

RESULTS

Narratives delineated both the generation of mistrust against PWID and the generation of mistrust in PWID against outsiders and medical institutions. In order to enroll PWID in treatment, community base organizations engaged outreach strategies to overcome mistrust and connect eligible patients to care, which varied in their success at recruiting women and men. Greater discrimination against WWID pushed them into hiding, away from outreach teams that focus on outdoor areas where men who inject drugs congregate. Building trust through multiple encounters and making a personal connection facilitated entry into care for women. Only PWID were eligible for MAT, due to resource constraints and the higher risk associated with injection drug use. Many women smoke heroin, yet still face high risk of HIV, resulting from low condom use during sex work to fund drug use.

CONCLUSION

Expanding outreach times and locations, by women peers, could increase women's enrollment in treatment. Allowing women who smoke heroin to enter the program could prevent onward transmission via sex work and reduce the chance of progressing from the lower risk smoking or sniffing to injection drug use.

Predictors of Injection Cessation and Relapse among Female Sex Workers who Inject Drugs in Two Mexican-US Border Cities

We know little about predictors of injection drug cessation and relapse among female sex workers who inject drugs (FSW-PWID) at the US-Mexico border. Among HIV-negative FSW-PWID taking part in a behavioral intervention study in Tijuana and Ciudad Juárez, Cox regression was used to identify predictors of time to first cessation of injection, which was defined as reporting not having injected drugs for a period of 4 months or longer, and among that subset, we examined predictors of time to injection relapse. Among 440 women, 84 (19%) reported ceasing injection during follow-up (median time to cessation = 9.3 months); of these, 30 (35%) reported relapse to injection (median time to relapse = 3.5 months). The rate of injection cessation was lower for women reporting trading sex prior to age 18 (adj. hazard ratio (HR) = 0.64, 95% confidence interval (CI) = 0.41-1.01), ever being sexually abused (adj. HR = 0.44, 95% CI = 0.27-0.71), and a higher number of vaginal sex acts with casual clients (adj. HR = 0.99 per transaction, 95% CI = 0.98-1.00). The rate of cessation was higher for women who spent more hours on the streets on a typical day (adj. HR = 1.04/h, 95% CI = 1.01-1.08) and who lived in Tijuana vs. Ciudad Juárez (adj. HR = 2.15, 95% CI = 1.14-4.07). The rate of relapse was higher among women reporting regular drug use with clients (adj. HR = 2.17, 95% CI = 0.96-4.89) and those scoring higher on a risk injection index (adj. HR = 2.04, 95% CI = 1.15-3.61). The rate of relapse was lower for FSW-PWID with higher than average incomes (adj. HR = 0.40, 95% CI = 0.18-0.89). These findings have important implications for the scale-up of methadone maintenance treatment programs (MMTPs) in Mexico and indicate a need for gender-specific programs that address sexual abuse experiences and economic vulnerabilities faced by FSW-PWID.

Retention in medication-assisted treatment for opiate dependence: A systematic review

Retention in medication-assisted treatment among opiate-dependent patients is associated with better outcomes. This systematic review (55 articles, 2010-2014) found wide variability in retention rates (i.e., 19%-94% at 3-month, 46%-92% at 4-month, 3%-88% at 6-month, and 37%-91% at 12-month follow-ups in randomized controlled trials), and identified medication and behavioral therapy factors associated with retention. As expected, patients who received naltrexone or buprenorphine had better retention rates than patients who received a placebo or no medication. Consistent with prior research, methadone was associated with better retention than buprenorphine/naloxone. And, heroin-assisted treatment was associated with better retention than methadone among treatment-refractory patients. Only a single study examined retention in medication-assisted treatment for longer than 1 year, and studies of behavioral therapies may have lacked statistical power; thus, studies with longer-term follow-ups and larger samples are needed. Contingency management showed promise to increase retention, but other behavioral therapies to increase retention, such as supervision of medication consumption, or additional counseling, education, or support, failed to find differences between intervention and control conditions. Promising behavioral therapies to increase retention have yet to be identified.

Comorbid Psychopathology and Alcohol Use Patterns among Methadone Maintenance Treatment Patients

130 patients from a methadone maintenance treatment program agreed to complete Symptoms Checklist 90-Revised (SCL-90R) and Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Test (AUDIT) self-report scales. Scores higher than the proposed cut-score on SCL-90R scale were observed on depression, obsessions-compulsions, paranoid ideation, anxiety, anger-hostility, somatization, interpersonal sensitivity, and psychoticism subscales. In sum, 42.9% of our sample exhibited depressive symptomatology, 34.9% obsessive-compulsive symptoms, 29.1% somatization, 27.2% anxiety symptoms, 22.2% paranoid ideation, 19% phobic anxiety, 15.1% psychoticism, and 15.1% hostility and 11.9% presented with symptoms of interpersonal sensitivity. Mean score on AUDIT scale was 6.9 ± 7.9. 63.0% of our participants scored below cut-off and were classified as having a low level of alcohol-related problems; 24.4% scored in the range of 8–15 which is an indication of alcohol abuse whereas 12.6% scored 16 and above indicative of serious abuse/addiction. Scores on AUDIT scale were positively correlated with length of time on methadone treatment, but not with length of time on drug use or age of our participants. Positive correlations were observed among AUDIT and SCL-90R scores, namely, with global severity index score, positive symptom distress index, positive symptom total, and all primary symptom dimensions subscales except phobic anxiety.

Long term outcomes of pharmacological treatments for opioid dependence: does methadone still lead the pack?

The aim of this review was to update and summarize the scientific knowledge on the long term outcomes of the different pharmacological treatment options for opioid dependence currently available and to provide a critical discussion on the different treatment options based on these results. We performed a literature search using the PubMed databases and the reference lists of the identified articles. Data from research show that the three pharmacological options reviewed are effective treatments for opioid dependence with positive long term outcomes. However, each one has its specific target population and setting. While methadone and buprenorphine are first line options, heroin-assisted treatment is a second line option for those patients refractory to treatment with methadone with concomitant severe physical, mental, social and/or functional problems. Buprenorphine seems to be the best option for use in primary care offices. The field of opioid dependence treatment is poised to undergo a process of reinforcement and transformation. Further efforts from researchers, clinicians and authorities should be made to turn new pharmacological options into clinical reality and to overcome the structural and functional obstacles that maintenance programmes face in combatting opioid dependence.

Sex work involvement among women with long-term opioid injection drug dependence who enter opioid agonist treatment

Background

Substitution with opioid-agonists (e.g., methadone) has shown to be an effective treatment for chronic long-term opioid dependency. Survival sex work, very common among injection drug users, has been associated with poor Opioid Agonist Treatment (OAT) engagement, retention and response. Therefore, this study was undertaken to determine factors associated with engaging in sex work among long-term opioid dependent women receiving OAT.

Methods

Data from a randomized controlled trial, the North American Opiate Medication Initiative (NAOMI), conducted in Vancouver and Montreal (Canada) between 2005-2008, was analyzed. The NAOMI study compared the effectiveness of oral methadone to injectable diacetylmorphine or injectable hydromorphone, the last two on a double blind basis, over 12 months. A research team, independent of the clinic services, obtained outcome evaluations at baseline and follow-up (3, 6, 9, 12, 18 and 24 months).

Results

A total 53.6% of women reported engaging in sex work in at least one of the research visits. At treatment initiation, women who were younger and had fewer years of education were more likely to be engaged in sex work. The multivariate logistic generalized estimating equation regression analysis determined that psychological symptoms, and high illicit heroin and cocaine use correlated with women's involvement in sex work during the study period.

Conclusions

After entering OAT, women using injection drugs and engaging in sex work represent a particularly vulnerable group showing poorer psychological health and a higher use of heroin and cocaine compared to women not engaging in sex work. These factors must be taken into consideration in the planning and provision of OAT in order to improve treatment outcomes.

Trial Registration

NCT00175357.