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Risk Behaviors for Injecting Drug Users

Purpose: To evaluate an injection drug user for lifestyle stability and HIV risk.

Description

Razzaghi et al identified risk behaviors in injecting drug users. These can help identify patients at risk for HIV, HCV or other infections. The authors are from Tehran University of Medical Sciences and Yale University.


 

Most injection drug users are male.

 

Parameters:

(1) lifestyle stability

(2) HIV risk

 

Lifestyle

High Stability

Intermediate

Low Stability

housing

at home with family

at home with family

irregular, homeless

economic resources

good

fair

poor

social support

good

fair, often other addicts

poor, with many problems

emotional support

good

fair

none

injection site

at home

public place or safe house

public place

criminal behavior

none

some

regular

personal hygiene

good

fair

poor

 

The authors found that the majority of injecting drug users had a stable lifestyle, indicating that the social impact of injection use may be underestimated if only obvious drug users are considered.

 

HIV Risk

Low Risk

Intermediate

High Risk

handling of syringe and needle

boils or heats

licks point, rinses with water then flushes with boiling water

licks point, rinses with water, wipes tip on cloth or paper, or none

injection alone

 

 

often

reuse of syringes

none or infrequent

common

almost all of the time

repeated reinjections of blood (blood play)

none or infrequent

common

common

syringe sharing

none or infrequent

occasional to frequent

almost all of the time

sharing of other equipment

none to frequent

common

almost all of the time

access to pharmacy sold syringes

available

limited access

very limited access

risk awareness

aware and tries to reduce risk

aware but continues risky behaviors

unaware or disregards

 

The optimum response for an injecting drug user depends on where the person is on the spectrum. Interventions may include:

(1) availability of sterile syringes

(2) safer injection facilities

(3) counseling

(4) social support

(5) access to methadone maintenance programs

(6) training

 


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Specialty

Objective

ICD-10