Study endorses onsite HIV testing without risk reduction counseling.

This research brief describes the outcomes from National Drug Abuse Treatment Clinical Trials Network protocol CTN-0032, “HIV Rapid Testing and Counseling,” which found that patients offered HIV testing at centers where they received treatment for substance abuse were four times as likely to be tested as patients referred offsite. The study also supported current CDC advice to omit pretest risk reduction counseling — study participants whose test offer was prefaced with 5 minutes of information about the procedure, and those who received 30 minutes of risk reduction counseling, accepted testing at roughly equal rates. Both groups also reported similar frequencies of sexual risk behaviors during the 6 months subsequent to their test offers. Twelve CTN-affiliated treatment centers throughout the US took part in the trial, with researchers concluding that brief procedural information with an offer of onsite testing was the intervention of choice. With less expenditure of staff time and resources, it yielded rates of test completion and sexual risk reduction that were equal to those obtained with counseling and an offer of onsite testing, and greater than those obtained with offsite referral.

Related protocols: CTN-0032