PITTSBURGH Alcohol, HIV link will be studied

Alcohol is the most common drug of abuse among people with HIV, according to a doctor.
PITTSBURGH -- The National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism granted $8 million to the University of Pittsburgh and the Pittsburgh Veterans Administration Medical Center to study how alcohol use and abuse interact with HIV infection and treatment.
"We know that alcohol and unprotected sex are common bedfellows. Alcohol use and abuse may be an important risk factor for HIV infection," said the study's principal investigator, Dr. Amy Justice of the University of Pittsburgh and Pittsburgh Veterans Affairs.
Alcohol is the most common drug of abuse among people infected with HIV, she said.
"Overuse of alcohol likely aggravates common related medical and psychiatric diseases such as hepatitis C and depression. Alcohol use may also decrease the benefit of HIV treatment by causing people to miss taking their medication and increasing the risk of treatment toxicity."
Control group: By involving veterans who are HIV-negative as the control group, the study will help to identify alcohol-related effects that are specific to aging people with HIV, and those that affect aging regardless of their HIV status.
The study's results will help physicians understand what level of alcohol consumption may be dangerous and will help them tailor treatment for all people who use alcohol.
Details: Justice and her co-principal investigator, Dr. Joseph Conigliaro, also of the University of Pittsburgh and the Pittsburgh VA, will lead the study of 2,000 HIV-infected veterans and 2,000 noninfected veterans from the VA facilities in Manhattan-Brooklyn, Bronx, Atlanta, Los Angeles and Houston.
Researchers will examine the impact of alcohol use and abuse on related diseases, drug toxicity, death, quality of life, treatment success, use of health care services and prescription drug use and adherence.
The VA's national electronic medical records system, which includes laboratory and pharmacy data and can track patient status over time, offers clear advantages for long-term study, Conigliaro said.
The national VA hospital system is the largest single provider of HIV service in the United States. In 2000 it treated some 18,000 HIV-infected veterans.