PREFERENCE FOR SEX ON AMPHETAMINE - A MARKER FOR HIV RISK BEHAVIOR AMONG MALE INTRAVENOUS AMPHETAMINE USERS IN STOCKHOLM

Two hundred injecting drug users at the Remand Prison in Stockholm par ticipated 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 th e female amphetamine injectors. Among the 74 men who mainly injected a mphetamine the characteristic of preferring sex on amphetamine was str ongly associated with positive HIV serostatus in bivariate analysis, b ut was not independently predictive of HIV serostatus when injection f requency was controlled for. The results suggest that preferring sex o n amphetamine may be viewed as a marker of high risk behaviour, both s exually and with needles, for HIV among male but not among female amph etamine injectors.