The study found that program participants made positive behavior changes in both drug injection use and high-risk sex. We found that the longer the period of time spent in the treatment program, the less likelihood that a person would engage in the very high-risk behavior of needle sharing. The study involved 261 clients in a drug treatment program at Walden House in San Francisco. Treatment involves a variety of clinical and support services, such as individual, group, and family counseling, education and vocational services, and social and recreational activities.
Treatment is structured to move participants from drug dependence to a drug-free lifestyle.
Participants included both men and women, ranging in age from 18 to 53 years. The primary drug of choice was cocaine for 67 percent of participants and heroin for 13 percent. As the epidemic continued, it became known that substance abusers who did not inject drugs also were at greater risk of HIV infection than the general population because of high-risk sexual practices. Now recent evaluations have concluded that methadone maintenance programs reduce needle use among drug users, but the evidence has been less clear about the value of other treatment modalities in reducing HIV risk among both IDUs and non-IDUs. The reason for this finding is not clear, although it may be related to the program's emphasis on abstinence.