Cocaine, AIDS, and Intravenous Drug Use

In lay language, Cocaine, AIDS, and Intravenous Drug Use presents what works and what doesn’t work in counseling drug dependent persons. Those in the substance abuse treatment field have been concerned in the last few years with combating the deadly combination of cocaine addiction and AIDS. This encouraging book describes in detail, new methods being tested for effectively decreasing the risks for HIV infection of drug-dependent persons.Many complex issues are covered, providing a helpful range of ideas in AIDS risk reduction and drug treatment programs in one book. New breakthroughs seen in the past years are highlighted, including the pathbreaking but controversial Tacoma Syringe Exchange program. Other topics addressed include psychopharmacologic agents in the therapeutic management of the cocaine addict ’s physical and psychological withdrawal symptoms; new perspectives on remedies for methadone patients and treatment; the effects of long-term alcohol and chronic alcohol/cocaine exposure on cardiac function; female sex partners and the HIV infection, including a review of the special problems facing women who have drug-injecting sex partners; and a large selection of chapters on prevention of the AIDS epidemic among drug injectors and users, including a review of AIDS risk reduction in drug treatment programs, syringe exchange programs, and organizing drug injectors against AIDS.Cocaine, AIDS, and Intravenous Drug Use shows the harsh realities of the cycle of drug use and the spread of AIDS and fosters a realistic understanding of the choices facing treatment programs and agencies. Helping to generate a research agenda for the 1990s, this needed book examines what has been successful in treatment and prevention and raises issues to promote greater research in the fields for improved treatment and prevention of drug abuse and HIV infection.