Sex trading and psychological distress among women on methadone

This study examined the relationship between sex trading and psychological distress among a nonrandom sample of women recruited from 3 methadone maint enance clinics in New York City. Face-to-face interviews with 280 women (M age = 40.7) revealed that 32% had traded sex for money or drugs in the prev ious year. Compared to other participants, these women reported less educat ion and higher rates of incarceration in the past year, sexually transmitte d diseases, childhood sexual abuse, partner abuse, and current regular crac k/cocaine and alcohol use. Hierarchical multiple regression analysis indica ted that sex traders scored 0.41 units higher than non-sex traders on the G eneral Severity Index of the Brief Symptom Inventory after controlling for all relevant covariates. The findings emphasize the need to consider the in terrelation of psychological distress, abuse, and addiction in designing pu blic health interventions addressing methadone maintained women.