Pustaka Ilmiah Universitas Padjadjaran

Abstrak

Physical and psychiatric problems in injecting drug users in Indonesia

Background: Injecting drug use is an important cause of HIV transmission, especially in Eastern Europe, South America, and East and Southeast Asia. Outpatient substance abuse treatment (OSAT) plays a crucial role in HIV prevention programs but access to this treatment is often limited. Integrating care in OSAT which addressed patient need will improve the utilization of the service. Therefore, we characterized and compared physical, psychiatric, and drug use problems and treatment need in Indonesian injecting drug users (IDUs) that did and did not utilize OSAT. Methods: Injecting drug users (IDUs) were recruited by respondent driven sampling in an urban setting in Java and interviewed regarding physical, psychiatric, and drug use problems, perceived severity, perceived treatment need, and interviewer severity rating using the European Addiction Severity Index. Those variables were compared between IDUs who did not access and accessed OSAT in the last 30 days, using Mann-Whitney and Pearson Chi-square test. Results: Only 55 out of 210 participants (26%) utilized OSAT in the last 30 days. Characteristics, perceived drug severity, drug treatment need, physical and psychiatric problems were similar regardless the utilization of OSAT in the last 30 days. The most frequent co-occurring problems were HIV (58%), trouble in remembering anxiety (51%), and anxiety (48%) and the most used drugs in the last 30 days were alcohol, heroin, cannabis, and benzodiazepine. Conclusion: This study from Indonesia showed that physical, psychiatric, and drug use problems are very common among IDUs. These findings support the implementation of “one stop care facilities” to increase the effectiveness and higher utilization of services.