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Syringe Exchange, Injecting and Intranasal Drug Use

Overview
Journal Addiction
Specialty Psychiatry
Date 2009 Nov 7
PMID 19891668
Citations 4
Authors
Don C Des Jarlais
Kamyar Arasteh
Courtney McKnight
Martin Ringer
Samuel R Friedman
Affiliations
Soon will be listed here.
Abstract

Objective: To assess trends in injecting and non-injecting drug use after implementation of large-scale syringe exchange in New York City. The belief that implementation of syringe exchange will lead to increased drug injecting has been a persistent argument against syringe exchange.

Methods: Administrative data on route of administration for primary drug of abuse among patients entering the Beth Israel methadone maintenance program from 1995 to 2007. Approximately 2000 patients enter the program each year.

Results: During and after the period of large-scale implementation of syringe exchange, the numbers of methadone program entrants reporting injecting drug use decreased while the numbers of entrants reporting intranasal drug use increased (P < 0.001).

Conclusion: While assessing the possible effects of syringe exchange on trends in injecting drug use is inherently difficult, these may be the strongest data collected to date showing a lack of increase in drug injecting following implementation of syringe exchange.

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Patterns of injection drug use cessation during an expansion of syringe exchange services in a Canadian setting.

Werb D, Kerr T, Buxton J, Shoveller J, Richardson C, Montaner J Drug Alcohol Depend. 2013; 132(3):535-40.

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Needle exchange and the HIV epidemic in Vancouver: lessons learned from 15 years of research.

Hyshka E, Strathdee S, Wood E, Kerr T Int J Drug Policy. 2012; 23(4):261-70.

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Increasing HIV prevention and care for injecting drug users.

Des Jarlais D, Arasteh K, Gwadz M Lancet. 2010; 375(9719):961-3.

PMID: 20189639 PMC: 7137987. DOI: 10.1016/S0140-6736(10)60314-5.

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