Journal of psychoactive drugs
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J Psychoactive Drugs · May 2003
Comparative StudyPsychiatric and substance dependence comorbidities, sexually transmitted diseases, and risk behaviors among methamphetamine-dependent gay and bisexual men seeking outpatient drug abuse treatment.
This article describes psychiatric and substance dependence comorbidities, lifetime rates of infectious disease, and reported high-risk sexual behaviors for methamphetamine-dependent, gay and bisexual men at entry to outpatient drug abuse treatment in Los Angeles. Participants' self-reports of high-risk sexual and drug use behaviors and of history of infectious disease status were correlated with diagnostic information from 155 Structured Clinical Interviews for the DSM-IV (SCID). ⋯ Differences in infectious disease prevalence did not correspond to significantly different rates of high-risk sexual behaviors. Findings indicate that gay and bisexual men seeking outpatient treatment for methamphetamine dependence are likely to experience psychiatric comorbidity and to have high rates of infectious disease, including HIV, syphilis and gonorrhea.