Psychology of Addictive Behaviors
Volume 15, Issue 3, 2001, Pages 177-184

Sex trading and psychological distress among women on methadone (Article)

El-Bassel N.* , Simoni J.M. , Cooper D.K. , Gilbert L. , Schilling R.F.
  • a Social Intervention Group, School of Social Work, Columbia University, 622 West 113th Street, New York, NY 10025, United States
  • b Social Intervention Group, School of Social Work, Columbia University, 622 West 113th Street, New York, NY 10025, United States
  • c Social Intervention Group, School of Social Work, Columbia University, 622 West 113th Street, New York, NY 10025, United States
  • d Social Intervention Group, School of Social Work, Columbia University, 622 West 113th Street, New York, NY 10025, United States
  • e Social Intervention Group, School of Social Work, Columbia University, 622 West 113th Street, New York, NY 10025, United States

Abstract

This study examined the relationship between sex trading and psychological distress among a nonrandom sample of women recruited from 3 methadone maintenance clinics in New York City. Face-to-face interviews with 280 women (M age = 40.7) revealed that 32% had traded sex for money or drugs in the previous year. Compared to other participants, these women reported less education and higher rates of incarceration in the past year, sexually transmitted diseases, childhood sexual abuse, partner abuse, and current regular crack/cocaine and alcohol use. Hierarchical multiple regression analysis indicated that sex traders scored 0.41 units higher than non-sex traders on the General Severity Index of the Brief Symptom Inventory after controlling for all relevant covariates. The findings emphasize the need to consider the interrelation of psychological distress, abuse, and addiction in designing public health interventions addressing methadone maintained women.

Author Keywords

[No Keywords available]

Index Keywords

education regression analysis sexual behavior human middle aged Stress, Psychological controlled study opiate alcohol Opioid-Related Disorders maintenance therapy sexually transmitted disease interview cocaine Humans female Multivariate Analysis prostitution opiate addiction sexual abuse Article prison major clinical study Child Abuse adult methadone New York City drug use distress syndrome disease severity Case-Control Studies family violence
Link
https://www.scopus.com/inward/record.uri?eid=2-s2.0-0034846111&doi=10.1037%2f0893-164X.15.3.177&partnerID=40&md5=743f067da375e55d8e45a28a04e39888
DOI: 10.1037/0893-164X.15.3.177
ISSN: 0893164X
Cited by: 65
Original Language: English