Patients were more likely to take a rapid HIV test when substance abuse treatment programs offered the test onsite rather than referred for offsite testing. Patients were equally likely to accept and learn their HIV status whether the offer of onsite testing was accompanied by 30 minutes of risk reduction counseling or by 5 minutes of brief information on the testing procedure. Onsite testing accompanied by brief information was cost effective, taking into account the projected lifetime costs of treatment and the gains in health and longevity for detected cases.
Researchers interested in applying for the NIDA U.S.-Mexico Drug Abuse Prevention Research Fellowship need to submit application materials by April 1, 2013.
Despite the advances in treatment and prevention, roughly 50,000 new HIV infections still occur annually in the Nation. Research, in large part supported by NIDA, has produced a strategy to address this circumstance and break the epidemiological impasse: seek out HIV-infected individuals, particularly those in “hard-to-reach” groups that have minimal contact with the health care system; offer them HIV testing and treatment; and provide support to help them stay in treatment.
July 2012 NIDA researchers have developed a computer program that motivates and encourages treatment-seeking when an individual is in a primary care physician’s waiting room. Users of the program, called Video Doctor, enter information on a portable device and receive feedback about health risks related to their drug abuse, along with advice, immediately prior to seeing their physician.
July 2011 Discusses research that compares multiple sessions of motivational and behavioral training with that of a single intervention among male and female substance abusers to reduce high-risk sexual behaviors.
March 2011 Describes a study revealing that HIV-infected prisoners in Texas often experience an interruption in treatment following their release and that assistance in filling out paperwork can reduce these interruptions.
December 2010 Announces three new NIDA National Advisory Council on Drug Abuse members and describes their drug abuse and addiction research experience.
October 2010 Recognizes four scientists for the 2009 Avant-Garde Award for HIV research, an award intended to stimulate groundbreaking research for the prevention and treatment of HIV/AIDS in drug abusers.