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Researchers have shown that about
half of HIV patients on antiretroviral therapy skipped their medicines when
drinking alcohol. Seth Kalichman, professor at the University of Connecticut,
and colleagues investigated how patients’ beliefs about drinking and taking
medication might contribute to poor treatment adherence.
They surveyed 178 patients (four out
of five were men) who drank alcohol and were being treated with antiretroviral
drugs. The researchers asked participants about their alcohol-related beliefs,
and whether people should not take both drugs and alcohol at the same time by
avoiding either alcohol or the medicines. Over a year, the team checked with
patients every month to determine how well they were adhering to their
treatment using a pill count, and every other month they enquired whether the
patient had been drinking recently. Doctors’ offices provided the patient’s
level of virus in the body and CD4-cell counts.
Results showed that 51 percent of
patients avoided medications when they drank, and half of this group had poor
adherence to prescriptions. The half of the group that skipped pills also said
they did not take medication until the alcohol is completely out of their
system. Of those who reported not skipping their medications when they drank,
36 percent did not adhere well to prescriptions and 31 percent said they did
not take medication until the alcohol is out of their system. People who
skipped medications while drinking were more likely to have higher levels of
HIV in their system and lower numbers of CD4 cells.
The authors concluded that patients
living with HIV who deliberately stopped treatment when they are drinking are
at risk for treatment failure. Kalichman suggested a simple fix, educating
patients about drinking and HIV treatments.
The study titled, Intentional
Non-Adherence to Medications among HIV Positive Alcohol Drinkers: Prospective
Study of Interactive Toxicity Beliefs, was published online in the Journal of
General Internal Medicine (2012, DOI: 10.1007/s11606-012-2231-1).
The Friends of AIDS Foundation is
dedicated to enhancing the quality of life for HIV positive individuals and
empowering people to make healthy choices to prevent the spread of the HIV
virus. To learn more about The Friends of AIDS Foundation, please visit: http://www.friendsofaids.org.
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