Preference for sex on amphetamine: A marker for HIV risk behaviour among male intravenous amphetamine users in Stockholm

Abstract

Two hundred injecting drug users at the Remand Prison in Stockholm participated in an interview study of sexual behaviour in parallel to an ongoing HIV epidemiological study. Fifty-four subjects were women and 146 were men. Amphetamine was the main drug used by 115 and heroin by 85. Twenty-six were HIV seropositive. Sexual activity was reported as the preferred activity on amphetamine by 51% of the male and 20% of the female amphetamine injectors. Among the 74 men who mainly injected amphetamine the characteristic of preferring sex on amphetamine was strongly associated with positive HIV serostatus in bivariate analysis, but was not independently predictive of HIV serostatus when injection frequency was controlled for. The results suggest that preferring sex on amphetamine may be viewed as a marker of high risk behaviour, both sexually and with needles, for HIV among male but not among female amphetamine injectors.