NIDA’s Clinical Trials Network: An opportunity for HIV research in community substance abuse treatment programs.

HIV continues to be a significant problem among substance users and their sexual partners in the United States. The National Drug Abuse Treatment Clinical Trials Network (CTN) offers a national platform for effectiveness trials of HIV interventions in community substance abuse treatment programs. This article presents the HIV-related activities of the CTN during its first 10 years. While emphasizing CTN HIV protocols, this article reviews the (1) HIV context for this work; (2) the collaborative process among providers, researchers, and National Institute on Drug Abuse CTN staff, on which CTN HIV work was based; (3) results of CTN HIV protocols and HIV secondary analyses in CTN non-HIV protocols; and (4) implications for future HIV intervention effectiveness research in community substance abuse treatment programs.

Conclusions: While the feasibility of engaging frontline providers in this research is highlighted, the limitations of small to medium effect sizes and weak adoption and sustainability in everyday practice are also discussed.

Related protocols: CTN-0010, CTN-0013, CTN-0015, CTN-0017, CTN-0018, CTN-0019, CTN-0032