SYSTEMATIC REVIEW AND META-ANALYSIS OF THE IMPACT OF HARM REDUCTION INTERVENTIONS IN COCAINE USERS

• Grant number: 24/13172-9
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Scientific Initiation
• Start date: October 01, 2024
• End date: September 30, 2025
• Field of knowledge: Health Sciences - Medicine - Psychiatry
• Principal Investigator: Thiago Marques Fidalgo
• Grantee: João Pedro Reggi
• Host Institution: Escola Paulista de Medicina (EPM). Universidade Federal de São Paulo (UNIFESP). Campus São Paulo. São Paulo , SP, Brazil

Abstract

Introduction: Harm reduction is a range of interventions based on reducing the risk of harm associated with certain behaviors without necessarily reducing the frequency of those behaviors. These are largely addictive practices such as drug use, an area where harm reduction interventions have been gaining more space. Within the variety of drug users, we have users of cocaine, a highly addictive drug that can present itself in the form of crack, a compound very relevant to the Brazilian context. Thus, the effectiveness of harm reduction practices applied to cocaine users is of enormous relevance both for the international context and for Brazilian society, which is experiencing a crack epidemic. However, there are still very few studies that analyze the effectiveness of these interventions.Objectives: To calculate the impact of harm reduction interventions on cocaine users.Methods: The search strategy was conducted in the PubMed, LILACS, and ClinicalTrials.gov databases as follows: ("Crack Cocaine" OR "cocaine") AND ("risk reduction" OR "harm reduction"). This review will include articles that are clinical trials or randomized clinical trials in English or Portuguese. The PRISMA protocol will be used for the data collection. The possibility of a meta-analysis will be evaluated at a later stage due to the heterogeneity of the studies.Expected Results: A positive impact on the reduction of cocaine use and the reduction of the risk of sexually transmitted diseases, when there is a harm reduction intervention for cocaine users.