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The Effects of Opioid Substitution Treatment and Highly Active Antiretroviral Therapy on the Cause-Specific Risk of Mortality Among HIV-Positive People Who Inject Drugs.

Nosyk B, Min JE, Evans E, Li L, Liu L, Lima VD, Wood E, Montaner JS. The Effects of Opioid Substitution Treatment and Highly Active Antiretroviral Therapy on the Cause-Specific Risk of Mortality Among HIV-Positive People Who Inject Drugs. Clinical infectious diseases : an official publication of the Infectious Diseases Society of America. 2015 Oct 1; 61(7):1157-65.

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Abstract:

BACKGROUND: Prior studies indicated opioid substitution treatment (OST) reduces mortality risk and improves the odds of accessing highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART); however, the relative effects of these treatments for human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)-positive people who inject drugs (PWID) are unclear. We determine the independent and joint effects of OST and HAART on mortality, by cause, within a population of HIV-positive PWID initiating HAART. METHODS: Using a linked population-level database for British Columbia, Canada, we used time-to-event analytic methods, including competing risks models, proportional hazards models with time-varying covariates, and marginal structural models, to identify the independent and joint effects of OST and HAART on all-cause as well as drug- and HIV-related mortality, controlling for covariates. RESULTS: Among 1727 HIV-positive PWID, 493 (28.5%) died during a median 5.1 years (interquartile range, 2.1-9.1) of follow-up: 18.7% due to drug-related causes, 55.8% due to HIV-related causes, and 25.6% due to other causes. Standardized mortality ratios were 12.2 (95% confidence interval [CI], 9.8, 15.0) during OST and 30.0 (27.1, 33.1) during periods out of OST. Both OST (adjusted hazard, 0.34; 95% CI, .23, .49) and HAART (0.39 [0.31, 0.48]) decreased the hazard of all-cause mortality; however, individuals were at lowest risk of death when these medications were used jointly (0.16 [0.10, 0.26]). Both OST and HAART independently protected against HIV-related death, drug-related death and death due to other causes. CONCLUSIONS: While both OST and HAART are life-saving treatments, joint administration is urgently needed to protect against both drug- and HIV-related mortality.





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