Afro-Trini women more likely to use cocaine than Indo-Trinis

Afro-Trinidadian women are more likely to use cocaine and to be infected with HIV than Indo-Trinidadian female drug addicts. This was one of the findings to come out of the 5th Annual Psychiatric Conference held yesterday by the Association of Psychiatrists of Trinidad and Tobago at the Crowne Plaza Hotel. In a paper titled “Ethnicity, HIV risk amongst intreatment female drug addicts”, Dr Sandra Reid noted that, with the Caribbean having the highest HIV-infection rate in the Americas, women were disproportinately infected by the disease. The male to female ratio had dropped from four-to-one in 1981 to two-to-one in 2001, with heterosexual sex being the main mode of transmission. Cautioning that her sample, which used case files from a drug rehabilitation centre for women, was small and might not represent all drug-using women in Trinidad and Tobago, Reid said that 63 percent of the addicts were African, 19.7 percent mixed, and 17 percent Indian.

Of the entire sample, almost 20 percent were HIV positive, but she warned the audience of nurses, social workers and psychologists that this figure might be low since not all the addicts had undergone routine testing for HIV. “African descended women were more likely to have a psychiatric history,” Reid said, noting that mental problems increased the risk of contracting HIV. She also found that African women’s drug of choice was usually crack cocaine, whereas the Indo-Trinidadian drug addicts preferred alcohol. “The link between cocaine use and risky sexual behaviour has been well-established,” she said. Of the sample, 82 percent of the women used alcohol, 69 percent marijuana, 79 percent used crack cocaine, with 53 percent using all three drugs. Asked in a questionnaire if they had ever experienced abuse as children, 82 percent of the women said Yes.