[Quantitative evaluation of sharing practices of materials at risk for infectious virus contamination by intravenous opiate users seeking treatment--application of the RAB(Risk for AIDS Behavior) self-administered questionnaire]. / Evaluation quantitative des pratiques de partage de matériel à risque de contamination infectieuse virale chez les usagers d'opiacés par voie intraveineuse faisant une demande de soins--utilisation de l'auto-questionnaire RAB.

The objective of this study was to quantify the occurrence of AIDS risk related sharing activities in i.v. opiate users seeking treatment using a self administered questionnaire. Subjects were recruited among first time consultants of an outpatient clinic and assessed using the Risk for AIDS Behavior questionnaire (RAB), a self administered questionnaire that assesses both needle-sharing and unprotected sexual activity; the Beck Depression Inventory (BDI) a self administered questionnaire that assesses depressive symptoms; and the Addiction Severity Index (ASI), a 45-min, structured interview that provides assessments of problem severity in seven functional areas commonly impaired among drug abusers. Among the 102 patients who came in for treatment, all 66 subjects reporting i.v. drug abuse agreed to participate. The study was based on the data collected from these 66 subjects of whom 49 were males (74%) and mean age +/- SD was 31 +/- 5. Fifty-eight-percent of theses subjects reported having shared needles or related paraphernalia over the past 6 months. Despite informational campaigns on the risks of sharing and despite the well spread knowledge of such a risk, most i.v. opiate users seeking treatment report having shared at least once over the previous 6 months.

[Evaluation of the use of psychotropic drugs from urine samples from subjects attending for the first time a clinic specializing in opium addiction]. / Evaluation de l'usage des psychotropes à partir d'échantillons urinaires chez des sujets s'adressant pour la première fois à une consultation spécialisée pour toxicomanie opiacée.

OBJECTIVES: Determine how well drug abusers requesting care accept urine sampling and the reliability of this method for evaluating drug use. METHODS: Subjects attending a specialized drug abuse clinic for the first time were requested to provide a urine sample for semiquantitative analysis using an immunological technique to identify the following substances: barbiturates, benzodiazepines, opiates, cocaine, amphetamines, cannabis, and dextropropoxyphen. RESULTS: All 98 subjects included in the study accepted the urine sample. More than 80% of the samples were positive for 1, 2 or 3 substances. The most frequent were, in decreasing order, opiates, cannabis, benzodiazepines and dextropropoxyphen. Among the opiate-positive subjects (70%), 80% were positive for 2 other substances, usually cannabis and benzodiazepines. Two-thirds of the cocaine-positive cases were observed among the most recently seen subjects. Among the 27 opiate-negative subjects, 16 stated they used buprenorphine. CONCLUSION: Within the setting of this study, urine sampling appeared to be well accepted by drug abusers. Urinalysis gave an objective evaluation of drug use and can be useful on an individual level providing complementary information to the overall examination. Urine sampling can also provide indicators for studying the evolution of drug use practices in different populations, both in a clinical and non-clinical setting.