Buprenorphine injection in Melbourne, Australia--an update.

Abstract

OBJECTIVE: To investigate the prevalence and associations of buprenorphine injection among a field-recruited cohort of injecting drug users. DESIGN: Cross-sectional data from a prospective longitudinal cohort. Setting. Metropolitan Melbourne, Australia. SUBJECTS: Current injecting drug users (IDUs). MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Prevalence of buprenorphine injection, associations with location, buprenorphine as prescribed pharmacotherapy, markers of hepatitis C virus (HCV) exposure and risk behaviours for HCV. RESULTS: More than 10% of our 316 participants reported buprenorphine as the drug they had most often injected, and 32% had injected buprenorphine at least once in the 3 months prior to inter..