Active clinical trials for "Substance Abuse, Intravenous"

The purpose of this study is to develop and test an intervention to reduce bacterial and viral infections among injection drug users.

Drug use (DU) is a major risk factor for HIV infection in many regions of the world. However, as highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART) has been rolled out in South and South East Asia, less than 2% of individuals initiated on HAART were drug users (DUs) or former DUs, despite the fact that approximately 20% of HIV infections in the region are ascribed to DU. India is home to about 2.4 million HIV-infected individuals. Though, injection drug users contribute to only about 3% of all HIV infections in India; it is estimated that there are between 168,000 and 1.1 million DUs in India with HIV prevalence about 30%. Novel approaches are needed to engage disenfranchised populations in HIV care in lower and middle income countries, where the burden of HIV disease is growing. Incentive-based strategies (or contingency management) have been shown to be effective in reducing illicit drug use, smoking cessation, and weight loss. Short-term pilot studies have also shown that incentive-based strategies can improve electronically-monitored rates of adherence to HAART in the US, and a recent study in Africa showed that a small incentive approximately doubled the rate that individuals returned to learn the results of their HIV test. However, to date there is no experience with the use of incentive-based interventions to improve engagement into care and risk-reduction among out-of-care HIV-infected DUs in developing world settings. The investigators propose to conduct pilot randomized trial comparing a voucher incentive strategy to a control condition to improve engagement in HIV care and HIV treatment outcomes among out-of-care, treatment-eligible, HIV-infected DUs in Chennai, India. Subjects in the incentive arm will be eligible to earn incentive vouchers for 1) initiating HAART at a government-sanctioned HIV treatment clinic, 2) adherence to scheduled follow-up visits at the HIV clinic, and 3) achieving suppression of HIV RNA. Subjects will be enrolled from a mature research venue in Chennai, YR Gaitonde Centre for Substance Abuse-related Research (YRGCSAR), which focuses the epidemiology and natural history of HIV in DUs. Preliminary data from this pilot study will be used to inform the design of a phase-III study.

A randomized study is planned over 5 years to evaluate the effectiveness of the Therapeutic Workplace in promoting naltrexone ingestion and abstinence in unemployed opiate-dependent injection drug users. Participants will be offered an opioid detoxification and naltrexone induction. Participants who complete the naltrexone induction will be randomly assigned to one of two groups. Both groups will be invited to work in the Therapeutic Workplace and prescribed naltrexone for 26 weeks. The groups will differ in the contingencies imposed to work and earn salary. Work Plus Naltrexone Contingency participants will be required to ingest naltrexone to work, and will receive a brief pay decrease for missing a dose. Work Plus Naltrexone Prescription participants will be prescribed naltrexone, but will not be required to ingest it to work. This study will provide a rigorous evaluation of a novel employment-based intervention, the Therapeutic Workplace, to promote naltrexone ingestion and drug abstinence in a population of injection drug users who are at considerable risk of spreading or contracting HIV infection. Hypotheses being tested in this study are: Naltrexone ingestion will be maintained in the group exposed to the employment-based naltrexone treatment significantly more than the group exposed to usual-care treatment package. Opiate abstinence will be maintained in the group exposed to the employment-based naltrexone treatment significantly more than the group exposed to usual-care treatment package.

The purpose of this study is to compare the Standard Medical Management (SMM) vs. SMM enhanced with additional education about addiction and recovery (Enhanced Medical Management, EMM)

The primary purpose of the study is to determine if the central feature of the Therapeutic Workplace, the abstinence reinforcement contingency, is critical to initiate cocaine abstinence in injection drug using methadone patients who use cocaine consistently during methadone treatment. All subjects initially will be invited to attend the Therapeutic Workplace for an initial period, but abstinence will not be required to work during that time. During this initial period, vouchers will be contingent only on workplace attendance and performance on the training programs. Subjects (n=70) who attend the workplace consistently during the first 4 weeks of treatment, but who continue to use cocaine will be randomly assigned to a Work Only or an Abstinence Plus Work group. Subjects in the Work Only group will continue to be able to work independent of their urinalysis results. However, subjects in the Abstinence Plus Work group will be required to provide urine samples that show evidence of recent cocaine abstinence. Subjects in both groups will be invited to stay in the workplace for 6 months. We expect the subjects in the Abstinence and Work group will achieve higher rates of abstinence than the subjects in the Work Only group. This result would show that the abstinence reinforcement contingency (i.e., the requirement to provide cocaine-free urine samples to work and earn vouchers) is important in the initiation of abstinence in the study population.

To study the impact of case management on the outcome of the care of chronic hepatitis C in people who inject drugs (PWID). By creating the function of case manager, the investigators will target all the barriers to care of the HCV care continuum. Partial objectives are to measure the impact of case management on the uptake for screening, the uptake and outcome of treatment, and the rate of reinfection.

The study will test the efficacy of a hour long, one-on-one, active listening counseling session (called Change the Cycle or CTC) aimed at reducing behaviors among active people who inject drugs (PWID) that research has found to facilitate uptake of injection drug use among non-injectors. The study will involve ~1,100 PWID who will be randomized to CTC or an equal attention control intervention on improving nutrition. Participants will be recruited in Los Angeles and San Francisco, California and followed up at 6 and 12 months to determine changes in direct and indirect facilitation of injection initiation among non-injectors.

People who inject drugs (PWID) have increased risk of Staphylococcus aureus (S. aureus) colonization, skin and soft tissue infections (SSTI), and systemic infections like septicaemia and endocarditis. International research and data from Malmö needle exchange program (NEP) show a 60 - 70% lifetime SSTI prevalence. Longitudinal colonization pattern of S. aureus and its association with infection frequency among PWID is unknown. Cultures from the anterior nares, throat and perineum are used to indirectly assess S. aureus skin colonization. In PWID 28 - 45% are colonized in the nares, which increases risk of infections. Clinical significance of extra-nasal colonization, and persistent/intermittent colonization is uncertain. The S. aureus genome can be characterized by whole genome sequencing (WGS). Certain types are associated with abscesses and systemic infections. The infection pattern among PWID is unknown. S. aureus skin colonization level is decreased by chlorhexidine body wash and nasal mupirocin used as surgical prophylaxis and treatment of furunculosis. To our knowledge, disinfection effect on infections in PWID is not studied. However, the clinical impression is that severe infections have somewhat diminished since the NEP started distributing skin disinfectant tissues. RESEARCH QUESTIONS Can repeated skin wash with chlorhexidine decrease infection frequency among PWID? Is the longitudinal S. aureus colonization pattern associated with infection prevalence among PWID? Can the risk of S. aureus-infections be predicted by quantification of bacterial level in anterior nares, throat, perineum or skin lesions/eczema? Can different types of S. aureus be identified, that are associated with colonization or infection among PWID (by WGS)? METHODS AND TIME PHRAME Malmö NEP was established in 1986, and several studies assessing HIV, hepatitis and sociological questions have been conducted in this setting. In December 2016 continuous inclusion of 100 PWID for the actual study started at Malmö NEP. The study period is estimated to two years, with scientific papers expected for publication. During the first year of the study, mapping of S. aureus colonization pattern among all study participants is conducted by repeated sampling, clinical evaluation of eczemas, and interviews regarding infections. Every third month samples are collected from nares, throat, perineum and skin lesions. Semi quantification of S. aureus takes place at the microbiological research laboratory at Lund University. BBL CHROMagar Staph aureus-plates are used and incubated in 35oC air for 48h. S. aureus-colonies are identified and quantified manually by pink colour change and Pastorex. MALDI-TOF will be used in unclear cases. Disk-diffusion will be used for resistance determination. Bacterial isolates will be frozen to -70oC for later WGS. Intervention with chlorhexidine wash starts one year after inclusion for each study subject, and will continue for one additional year. Study participants with S aureus colonization will undergo regular showers with chlorhexidine (intervention group) at the needle exchange. In order to avoid bacterial resistance, muporicin will not be used. During the intervention, cultures, interviews and clinical evaluation will continue.

The purpose of this study is to compare the effects of (a) immunization setting and (b) outreach worker support on young injection drug users' (IDU) adherence to a multiple dose immunization schedule with a combined hepatitis A virus (HAV) inactivated and hepatitis B virus (HBV) recombinant vaccine.

Scaling up integrated, cost-efficient HIV services for people who inject drugs (PWID) in Needle Syringe Programs (NSPs) is urgently needed in Kazakhstan, where only one-third of the estimated 19,000 HIV-positive PWID are ever linked to HIV care and only 10% initiate ART with 4% achieving viral suppression. The study's aim is to evaluate the implementation, effectiveness, and sustainability of an integrated HIV service model in 24 NSPs located in 3 Kazakhstani city areas. This model will employ highly effective strategies that will include peer-driven recruitment of PWID in NSPs using social network strategies (SNS), integrating rapid HIV testing in NSPs with HIV Care Clinic nurses, and linking HIV positive PWID in NSPs to HIV care using the ARTAS (Anti-Retroviral Treatment and Access to Services) case management model. Findings will have important public health implications for improving HIV service delivery for PWID in the Central Asian region and other countries with injection driven epidemics.