Sustained reductions in drug use and depression symptoms from treatment for drug abuse in methamphetamine-dependent gay and bisexual men, Journal of Urban Health 2005;82:i100-i108

ABSTRACT Methamphetamine abusers often complain of feelings of depression that can complicate accurately diagnosing these individuals during treatments for methamphet-amine abuse. This article presents an examination of temporal associations between doc-umented methamphetamine use and reported ratings of depression among 162 gay and bisexual male methamphetamine abusers who participated in a 16-week randomized clinical trial of four behavioral therapies for methamphetamine abuse. Methamphet-amine use was measured using thrice-weekly urine samples analyzed for drug metabolite. Self-reported depressive symptoms were collected weekly using the Beck Depression Inventory (BDI). At treatment entry, 73.2 % of participants rated their depressive symp-toms as mild or higher in severity (BDI≥10), with 28.5 % reporting BDI scores in the moderate to severe range (BDI≥19). All participants reported significant decreases in depressive symptoms from baseline through the end of treatment, regardless of treatment condition, HIV status, or mood disorder diagnosis. A mixed regression model showed methamphetamine use for up to 5 days prior to the BDI score strongly predicted depres-sive symptoms (F1, 968=18.6, P<.0001), while BDI scores had no significant association with subsequent methamphetamine use. Findings show that behavioral methamphet-amine abuse treatment yields reductions in methamphetamine use and concomitant depressive symptom ratings that are sustained to 1 year after treatment entry