Substance abuse treatment clinician opinions and infectious disease service delivery

• Published in: Journal of addictive diseases Vol. 28; no. 1; p. 8
• Main Authors: Tracy, Kathlene, Brown, Lawrence S, Kritz, Steven, Alderson, Donald, Robinson, Jim, Bini, Edmund J, Levy, Michael, Calsyn, Donald, Rieckmann, Traci, Fuller, Bret, McAuliffe, Pat, Rotrosen, John
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: England 01.01.2009
• Subjects: Attitude of Health Personnel; Clinical Trials as Topic; Cross-Sectional Studies; Delivery of Health Care; Hepatitis C - complications; Hepatitis C - psychology; HIV Infections - psychology; Humans; Physicians - psychology; Practice Patterns, Physicians; Sexually Transmitted Diseases - complications; Sexually Transmitted Diseases - psychology; Substance Abuse Treatment Centers; Substance-Related Disorders - microbiology; Substance-Related Disorders - psychology; Substance-Related Disorders - therapy; United States; United States
• ISSN: 1545-0848
• DOI: 10.1080/10550880802544625

Substance abuse treatment programs are an important platform for delivery of services for infectious diseases associated with drug and alcohol use. However, important components of infectious disease care are not universally provided. Clinician training often focuses on information about infectious diseases and less attention is paid to provider opinions and attitudes that may be barriers to providing infectious diseases services. In a national multi-site trial conducted by the National Drug Abuse Treatment Clinical Trials Network (CTN), we investigated the relationship between clinician opinions and the delivery of services for human immunodeficiency virus, hepatitis C virus, and sexually transmitted infections in substance abuse treatment settings. Survey data were collected from 1,723 clinicians at 269 CTN treatment programs. Clinician opinion was found to be significantly related to infectious disease service delivery. Implications for training are discussed.