Dr. Friedman’s research covers a wide range of topics related to HIV and drug use. He has studied social factors, social networks and HIV, STIs and other blood-borne viruses among youth and drug injectors in a high-risk community.
Dr. Friedman analyzed the impact of economic and political crises on HIV risk in Buenos Aires, Argentina, and conducted research on HIV risk and prevention opportunities at primarily heterosexual group sex events. Other studies investigate how some long-term drug injectors remain uninfected with HIV and hepatitis C virus (i.e., how they stay safe) and why women injectors who have sex with women are at enhanced risk for HIV and other infections. In 96 large US metropolitan areas, Dr. Friedman is conducting a longitudinal analysis of the socio-economic and policy predictors of the extent of injection drug use, of HIV epidemics, of AIDS incidence and of AIDS mortality, as well as of HIV prevention efforts. He developed novel measures to understand how structural interventions or big events and/or complex emergencies affect variables related to HIV risk networks and behaviors. Together with AIDS Alliance Ukraine, Dr. Friedman is working on a field pilot of a unique “integrated” transdisciplinary HIV prevention program. Informal collaboration with users’ groups, such as the International Network of People Who Use Drugs, has been a major focus of his work since 1986.