“Taken together, these findings indicate that substance use should not be used as a reason to withhold PrEP because of concerns about adherence ”

In a new study of men who have sex with men (MSM) who were not infected with HIV, investigators found that although substance users had increased rates of sexually transmitted infections (STIs), pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) adherence was not decreased by substance use.

A team of investigators from Austria, Colorado, and several southern California-based institutions assessed baseline and ongoing substance use over a 48-week period for stimulants and nonstimulant substances in a cohort of 394 participants (391 MSM and 3 transgender women) to investigate the association between substance use and adherence to PrEP, diagnosis of an STI, and completion of the study.

It has been previously thought that HIV-uninfected MSM and transgender women who have used stimulant or non-stimulant substances represent ideal candidates for PREP; however, the investigators hypothesized that substance users (in their study population) would have lower levels of PrEP adherence.

All participants in the study, published in the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC’s) Journal of Emerging Infectious Diseases, were also enrolled in CCTG 595, a randomized controlled trial evaluating individualized text messaging versus standard care for adherence to daily PrEP.