• People living with HIV (PLWH) who use substances continue to have shorter life expectancies and worse health outcomes than PLWH who do not use substances.
• Another important contributor to factors that can affect the health of PLWH who use substances is these individuals’ frequent…

• A growing body of evidence suggests that chronic substance users have higher rates of cognitive impairment than the general population.

Impairment also seems to differ by type of substance use disorder (SUD), with different types of impairment (…

• Motivational interviewing (MI) is an evidence-based practice shown to be effective when working with people in treatment for substance use disorders.

However, MI comprises a complex set of skills that are not easy to master, so training requires valid measurement of fidelity…

• Emerging adulthood, the period roughly between 18-29 years of age, has been characterized as being a unique developmental period, and a time of personal exploration with reduced societal and family restrictions, along with fewer responsibilities and more social/personal instability.
…

• Medication-assisted treatment is superior to placebo and counseling-only treatment for opioid use disorders.
• Buprenorphine-naloxone (BUP-NX) and extended-release naltrexone (XR-NTX) are two such medications, and they can be prescribed in any U.S. medical setting, making them key…

• Technology-assisted interventions for substance use disorders show great promise for providing access to high-quality, evidence-based interventions while reducing barriers such as cost, geographic distance from specialty care, and stigma.

Despite socioeconomic disparities…

• Social Exchange Theory suggests that heterosexual power inequities influence sexual negotiation.


• The Theory of Gender and Power adds that a history of abuse may increase the power differential and disempower women from advocating for their own best interests.

…

• Many patients are lost at each step along the HIV care cascade.
• The current standard-of-care pathway from screening to starting antiretroviral therapy (ART) in China involves multiple hospital visits, separate blood draws, and protracted waiting periods, resulting in substantial…

• Pear Therapeutics, producer of a number of digital therapeutic tools, announced this month that the FDA has approved their marketing of a smartphone-based tool call “reSET®” for the treatment of patients with substance use disorder (SUD).
• This is the first time the FDA has cleared…

• Authored by members of the Center for the Clinical Trials Network, in collaboration with the NIDA Intramural Research Program, this article reports on a clinical trial that found that adding clonidine to buprenorphine treatment for opioid dependence increased abstinence and decoupled stress…