Amsterdam 2015
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| Abstract #2140 - Poster 2 | ||||
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Session: 59.7: Poster 2 (Poster) on Tuesday in Chaired by Authors: Presenting Author: DR Shilpa Zacharia - NHS, United Kingdom |
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| Additional Authors: | ||||
| Aim: To look at the pattern of recreational drug use in HIV positive people referred to a dedicated psychological medicine service. | ||||
| Method / Issue: A retrospective review of all cases referred to the service during 2014. Paper records of all the referrals made by GPs, clinicians and self-referrals were used to identify those that were HIV positive. The details about drug use for each referral made to both psychologists and psychiatrists were extracted from an electronic data base and analysed. | ||||
| Results / Comments: Out of the 392 patients seen by the psychological medicine team in 2014, 116 (30%) admitted to regular use of recreational substances. A third of those using substances had substance use as their principal diagnosis, for the remaining two thirds substance use was a concurrent and not principal diagnosis. The mean age of this group is 39, younger than the average referral to the service of 43. Many of the patients were using multiple substances and it was not possible to distinguish which was the principal drug of use. Of the 116 patients using substances 48 (21%) used mephedrone, 45 (20%) used GBL, 43 (19%) patients used crystal methamphetamine, 28 (12%) used cannabis, 23 (10%), misused Benzodiazepines or hypnotics ,19 (8%) used cocaine, 7 (3%) used Ketamine, 7 (3%) used LSD or Ecstasy, 3 (1%) used heroin and 3(1%) abused anabolic steroids and 23 (10%) misused alcohol. For those who used substances, 42 (36%) of the patients had a principal diagnosis of depression. This is compared to depression being the principal diagnosis of 155 (52%) in non drug users. | ||||
| Discussion: As shown above, recreational drug users had a lower proportion of depression and anxiety as compared to non drug users but comparatively, were more likely to suffer with psychotic illnesses including mania and schizophrenia. As drug use is common in this population, it means that mental health and medical teams dealing with patients with HIV need to be able to identify and assess the significance of the drug use in relation to the psychiatric diagnosis, be aware of possible complications due to substance use and be able to refer to appropriate agencies. | ||||
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