Feasibility, acceptability, and perceived usefulness of a community-evidence-based harm reduction intervention for sexualized stimulant use among Mexican gay, bisexual, and other men who have sex with men.

Background: The use of stimulants and other substances with the purpose of enhancing, maintaining, and prolonging sexual activity is known as sexualized substance use. Also known as chemsex, this pattern of use has been mainly explored in high-income countries. The aim of this article was to assess the feasibility, acceptability, and usefulness of a community- evidence-based harm reduction intervention among Mexican gay, bisexual, and other men who have sex with men (gbMSM) adults who reported sexualized stimulant use in the past 6 months and who were not enrolled in any psychosocial treatment.

Mental disorders in Mexico 1990-2021. Results from the Global Burden of Disease 2021 study.

Background: Mental disorders are one of the main causes of years lived with disability, although there is a lack of recent estimates of their magnitude.

Objective: To report the trends of mental disorders prevalence, years lived with disability and years of healthy life lost by sex, age and state in Mexico.

Material And Methods: The Global Burden of Disease database for Mexico was used.

HIV Stigma Mechanisms Scale: Factor Structure, Reliability, and Validity in Mexican Adults.

We aimed to validate the HIV Stigma Mechanisms Scale (HIV-SMS) in a sample of Mexican adults living with HIV, which differentiates between sources and mechanisms of stigma. Adults (n = 362) with a median age of 32 years old completed a web-based version in Spanish of the HIV-SMS as well as sociodemographic and HIV-related characteristics questionnaire. Exploratory factor analyses with weighted least squares and oblique rotation were performed to assess the construct validity of the scale.

Hoping for a Better Future during COVID-19: How Migration Plans Are Protective of Depressive Symptoms for Haitian Migrants Living in Chile.

This paper explores the migration experiences, perceived COVID-19 impacts, and depression symptoms among Haitian migrants living in Santiago, Chile. Ninety-five participants from eight neighborhoods with a high density of Haitian migrants were recruited. Descriptive statistics, univariate analysis, and logistic regression analysis were conducted.

Substance use stigma mechanisms scale: Factor structure, reliability, and validity in Mexican adults that use drugs.

Background: Studies among the Mexican population have suggested that stigma towards persons who use drugs (PWUD) may act as a barrier to treatment seeking and contribute to negative health consequences. However, there has not been a validated scale to measure this construct. This paper aims to validate the Substance Use Stigma Mechanisms Scale (SU-SMS) in a sample of Mexican adults who use drugs.

An Ethnographic Assessment of COVID-19‒Related Changes to the Risk Environment for People Who Use Drugs in Tijuana, Mexico.

To characterize the effects of the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic on the risk environment of people who use drugs (PWUD) in Tijuana, Mexico. We used intensive participant-observation ethnography among street-based PWUD and key informants, such as frontline physicians and harm reductionists. PWUD described an unprecedented cessation of police violence and extortion during the initial pandemic-related lockdown, though this quickly reversed and police violence worsened.

Barriers to treatment for mental disorders in six countries of the Americas: A regional report from the World Mental Health Surveys.

Background: Mental health treatment is scarce and little resources are invested in reducing the wide treatment gap that exists in the Americas. The regional barriers are unknown. We describe the barriers for not seeking treatment among those with mental and substance use disorders from six (four low- and middle-income and two high-income) countries from the Americas.

"I would rather do it myself": injection initiation and current injection patterns among women who inject drugs in Tijuana, Mexico.

Background: Women who inject drugs (WWID) experience unique risks and adverse health outcomes related to injection initiation and patterns of injection drug use. However, there is limited information on injection initiation experiences and injection patterns among women and the protective strategies employed to limit injection-related harms, especially in low- and middle-income settings. Therefore, this study sought to explore injection initiation and current injection patterns (e.

Risk of non-fatal overdose and polysubstance use in a longitudinal study with people who inject drugs in Tijuana, Mexico.

Introduction: Among people who inject drugs (PWID), polysubstance use has been associated with fatal and non-fatal overdose (NFOD). However, the risk of overdose due to the cumulative number of various recently used drug types remains unexplored. We estimated the risk of NFOD for different polysubstance use categories among PWID in Tijuana, Mexico.

Comprehensive analysis of alcohol policies in the Latin America and the Caribbean.

Introduction: The aim of this paper is to describe the context of alcohol use and problems in Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC), the environmental context for alcohol-related policy, drinking trends, harm and policy and to systematically review policies implemented to reduce alcohol-related burden.

Methods: LAC-based studies relating to the existence and effects of public health-oriented alcohol policies are described. The review is informed by a literature search of alcohol policies in LAC in English and in Spanish in several platforms, and in publications of international organisations, including grey and scientific literature.

The role of drug treatment and recovery services: an opportunity to address injection initiation assistance in Tijuana, Mexico.

Background: In the U.S. and Canada, people who inject drugs' (PWID) enrollment in medication-assisted treatment (MAT) has been associated with a reduced likelihood that they will assist others in injection initiation events.

COVID-19 and alcohol in Mexico: A serious health crisis, strong actions on alcohol in response-Commentary on Stockwell et al.

The present text comments on Stockwell and colleagues' paper documenting the high burden of alcohol use in COVID-19 related mortality in the USA and Canada in North America and the absence of a control policy in several countries of the world. This comment adds information about the third country in North America, Mexico. It describes alcohol use during the COVID lockdown and its consequences, highlighting the control efforts through public health policies and ponders the weaknesses of the current response to the health crisis and opportunities in the aftermath.

Self-perception of assisting with future injection drug initiation: The influence of relationships in the process of drug injecting initiation.

Introduction And Aims: People who inject drugs (PWID) play critical roles in assisting others into injection drug use (IDU) initiation. Understanding perceptions of PWID's risk of initiating others is needed to inform interventions for prevention. The objective was to examine factors associated with self-perception of assisting with future IDU initiation events.

Modelling integrated antiretroviral treatment and harm reduction services on HIV and overdose among people who inject drugs in Tijuana, Mexico.

Introduction: The HIV epidemic in Tijuana, Mexico is concentrated in key populations, including people who inject drugs (PWID). However, HIV interventions among PWID are minimal, and federal funding was provided for compulsory abstinence programmes associated with HIV and overdose. Alternatively, opioid agonist therapy reduces overdose, reincarceration, HIV, while improving antiretroviral therapy (ART) outcomes.

"Pick up anything that moves": a qualitative analysis of a police crackdown against people who use drugs in Tijuana, Mexico.

Background: Homeless people who use drugs (PWUD) are often displaced, detained, and/or forced into drug treatment during police crackdowns. Such operations follow a zero-tolerance approach to law enforcement and have a deleterious impact on the health of PWUD. In Mexico, municipal police officers (MPOs) conducted the largest crackdown documented at the Tijuana River Canal (Tijuana Mejora) to dismantle an open drug market.

Is hepatitis C virus (HCV) elimination achievable among people who inject drugs in Tijuana, Mexico? A modeling analysis.

Background: In 2019, Mexico became the first Latin American country committed to hepatitis C virus (HCV) elimination, but the amount of intervention scale-up required is unclear. In Tijuana, HCV among people who inject drugs (PWID) is high; yet there is minimal and intermittent harm reduction, and involuntary exposure to compulsory abstinence programs (CAP) occurs which is associated with increased HCV risk. We determined what combination intervention scale-up can achieve HCV elimination among current and former PWID in Tijuana.

Implementing Evidence-Based HIV Prevention for Female Sex Workers in Mexico: Provider Assessments of Feasibility and Acceptability.

This study examined service provider perceptions of feasibility and acceptability of implementing evidence-based practices for preventing HIV/AIDS and STIs in female sex workers (FSWs) in Mexico. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 124 directors, supervisors and counselors from 12 reproductive health clinics located throughout Mexico participating in a large randomized controlled trial to scale-up the use of a psychoeducational intervention designed to promote FSW condom use and enhance safer sex negotiation skills. Feasibility was based on assessment of personal, organizational and social costs, benefits, and capacity.

The role of gender and power dynamics in injection initiation events within intimate partnerships in the US-Mexico border region.

Women's initiation into injection drug use often establishes a pattern of risk following first injection. This study explored sources of gendered power dynamics in injection initiation experiences for people who inject drugs. A qualitative subsample from two prospective community-recruited cohorts of people who inject drugs in San Diego and Tijuana provided data on the contexts surrounding injection initiation processes.

: The Provision of Injection Drug Use Initiation Assistance in a High-Risk U.S.-Mexico Border Region.

Persons who inject drugs (PWID) play a key role in assisting others' initiation into injection drug use (IDU). We aimed to explore the pathways and socio-structural contexts for this phenomenon in Tijuana, Mexico, a border setting marked by a large PWID population with limited access to health and social services. (PRIMER) is a multi-cohort study assessing socio-structural factors associated with PWID assisting others into initiating IDU.

"Somebody Is Gonna Be Hurt": Involuntary Drug Treatment in Mexico.

Involuntary drug treatment (IDT) is ineffective in decreasing drug use, yet it is a common practice. In Mexico, there are not enough professional residential drug treatment programs, and both voluntary and involuntary drug treatment is often provided by non-evidence based, non-professional programs. We studied the experiences of people who inject drugs (PWID) in Tijuana who were taken involuntarily to drug centers under the auspices of a federally funded police operation.

Identification of a Syndemic of Blood-Borne Disease Transmission and Injection Drug Use Initiation at the US-Mexico Border.

Background: Efforts to prevent injection drug use (IDU) are increasingly focused on the role that people who inject drugs (PWID) play in the assistance with injection initiation. We studied the association between recent (ie, past 6 months) injection-related HIV risk behaviors and injection initiation assistance into IDU among PWID in the US-Mexico border region.

Setting: Preventing Injecting by Modifying Existing Responses (PRIMER) is a multicohort study assessing social and structural factors related to injection initiation assistance.

Factors associated with extrajudicial arrest for syringe possession: results of a department-wide survey of municipal police in Tijuana, Mexico.

Background: Mexican law permits syringe purchase and possession without prescription. Nonetheless, people who inject drugs (PWID) frequently report arrest for syringe possession. Extrajudicial arrests not only violate human rights, but also significantly increase the risk of blood-borne infection transmission and other health harms among PWID and police personnel.

The effect of public health-oriented drug law reform on HIV incidence in people who inject drugs in Tijuana, Mexico: an epidemic modelling study.

Background: As countries embark on public health-oriented drug law reform, health impact evaluations are needed. In 2012, Mexico mandated the narcomenudeo reform, which depenalised the possession of small amounts of drugs and instituted drug treatment instead of incarceration. We investigated the past and future effect of this drug law reform on HIV incidence in people who inject drugs in Tijuana, Mexico.