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What do we know about anabolic steroid injectors and what are the implications for syringe exchange services?
Jim McVeigh, Reader in Substance Use Epidemiology, Liverpool John Moores University, Liverpool
Abstract
Good epidemiological data are nationally available on individuals attending structured drug treatment in the form of the National Drug Treatment Monitoring System (NDTMS). However, as anabolic steroid users
are rarely in contact with structured treatment there is a paucity of information relating to this group. In Cheshire & Merseyside the Inter Agency Drug Misuse Database has collected attributable data on all
individuals attending agency based syringe exchange schemes (SES) since 1991. During this period nearly 7,000 individual anabolic steroid injectors have been in contact with SES, making a total of 32,000 exchanges involving over 1.2 million syringes.
In the most recent survey of anabolic steroid users in Merseyside eighty-five injectors were questioned about their drug use together with how and where they accessed injecting equipment, information and advice regarding anabolic steroid and health and medical support. Data indicate the extent of secondary distribution of injecting equipment and the change in drug regimes used.
The longitudinal dataset in conjunction with local surveys of anabolic steroid users in contact with SES provides details of the characteristics of AS injectors and how they utilise the services and an estimation of the extent of syringe exchange coverage for this client group. These data will be used to identify the public health and harm reduction implications of steroid use, enabling the exploration of how SES services should respond to this issue.
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Biography
Jim McVeigh is Head of Substance Use at the Centre for Public Health, Liverpool John Moores University. He is also a consultant trainer in anabolic steroids for the organisation HIT. In 2005 he was awarded the the
title of Reader in Substance Use Epidemiology. He has experience as a harm reduction nurse within a syringe exchange service together with research and publications relating to the use of anabolic steroids and other performance enhancing drugs. Since the mid 1990s he has worked at the University of Liverpool and Liverpool John Moores University in communicable disease and drug use research. He has a wide range of drug related research interests including drug treatment, drug prevention and the criminal justice system. However, issues relating to injecting drug use, harm reduction and service provision have remained key areas of interest.
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