Impact of accessing methadone on the time to initiating HIV treatment among antiretroviral-naive HIV-infected injection drug users

Abstract

We examined the impact of methadone maintenance therapy (MMT) on subsequent antiretroviral therapy (ART) use in a prospective cohort of injection drug users. At 24 months after enrollment, the rate of ART use was 69.7% among those who were on MMT at baseline and 44.4% among those not on MMT (log-rank P = 0.001). In a Cox model, the use of MMT was independently associated with an elevated rate of ART use.