Alcohol and drug use are common among HIV-infected patients and are important determinants of secondary transmission risk and medication adherence. As part of the Coping with HIV/AIDS in the Southeast (CHASE) Study, 611 HIV-infected patients were consecutively recruited from eight clinical care sites in five southeastern U.S. states in 2001-2002. We examined the distribution and predictors of alcohol and drug use in this sample with an emphasis on psychosocial predictors of use. In the prior 9 months, 27% of participants drank alcohol and 7% drank to intoxication at least weekly. The most common drugs used at least weekly were marijuana (12%) and crack (5%); 11% used a non-marijuana drug. 7% reported polysubstance use (use of multiple substances at one time) at least weekly. Injection drug use was rare (2% injected at least once in the past 9 months). There were few differences in alcohol and drug use across sociodemographic characteristics. Stronger adaptive coping strategies were the most consistent predictor of less frequent alcohol and drug use, in particular coping through action and coping through relying on religion. Stronger maladaptive coping strategies predicted greater frequency of drinking to intoxication but not other measures of alcohol and drug use. Those with more lifetime traumatic experiences also reported higher substance use. Interventions that teach adaptive coping strategies may be effective in reducing alcohol and substance use among HIV-positive persons.

Patients with unfavorable psychosocial profiles were less likely to be on ART, perhaps attributable to providers' or patients' expectations of readiness. Psychosocial characteristics were not associated with ART discontinuation or virologic failure, however, possibly reflecting the selection process involved in who initiates ART. Racial disparities in ART discontinuation and virologic failure merit further attention.

This study examined whether the relationship between HAART medication adherence and antidepressant treatment varied with HAART regimen complexity. The analysis included 1,192 respondents to the HIV Cost and Service Utilization Study (HCSUS) who were taking HAART. Self-reported past-week HAART adherence, antidepressant use, current mental health status, and an aggregate measure of regimen complexity were used in the analysis. Regression models with interactions between antidepressant treatment of mental health problems, poor emotional well-being or depressive symptoms, and medication complexity were estimated to assess differential associations with adherence. Irrespective of antidepressant treatment, poor mental health status was negatively associated with HAART medication adherence. However, only untreated higher depressive symptoms were strongly associated with maladherence to HAART medication (OR = 0.72 at P < 0.05). Medication complexity was strongly associated with maladherence to HAART medication (OR = 0.96 with P < 0.05) in the model including emotional well-being; and weakly associated with maladherence (OR = 0.97 and P < 0.07) in the model including depressive and/or anxiety symptoms. However, as HAART medication complexity increased, adherence was higher among individuals with poorer mental health but using antidepressants compared to those with better mental health (OR = 1.09 with P < 0.05 in the model including emotional well-being; OR = 1.09 and P < 0.05 in the model including depressive and/or anxiety symptoms), and compared to those with poorer mental health but not using antidepressants (OR = 1.09, P = 0.08 in the model including emotional well-being, and OR = 1.12, P < 0.05 in model including depressive and/or anxiety symptoms). In conclusion, while individuals with poorer mental health generally have poor HAART adherence, their adherence improved with the use of antidepressants as the HAART complexity increased.

Because minimum government standards for quality regulate only part of the market failure, they may have unintended effects. We present a general theory of how government regulation of quality of care may affect different market segments, and test the hypotheses for the nursing home market. OBRA 1987 was a sweeping government reform to improve the quality of nursing home care. We study how the effect of OBRA on the quality of nursing home care, measured by resident outcomes, varied with nursing home profitability. Using a semi-parametric method to control for the endogenous effects of regulation, we found that this landmark legislation had a negative effect on the quality of care in less profitable nursing homes, but improved the quality in more profitable nursing homes during the initial period after OBRA. But, this legislation had no statistically significant effect in the later period when the regulation was weakly enforced.

: While individuals with poorer mental health generally have poor adherence, these individuals may have been preferentially targeted with adherence support interventions as the medication regimen complexity increased. Physicians should now begin to target adherence interventions to patients with less complex HIV regimens.