Depressive symptoms and substance use: Changes overtime among a cohort of HIV-positive and HIV-negative MSM

Background: The objective of this study was to examine depressive symptoms overtime and quantify the variance in symptoms attributable to substance use among a cohort of HIV-positive and HIV-negative men. Methods: Participants were enrolled in an NIH/NIDA funded cohort, with 534 men resulting in 1,888 visits between August 2014 and June 2018. Participants were between 18 and 45 years, and half were HIV-positive. At baseline and semi-annual visits, information was collected on depressive symptoms, sexual behaviors, and substance use. Changes overtime in symptom scores were evaluated using individual growth curve modeling. Results: The average CES-D-20 score was 19.5 (SD = 12.7). Depressive symptoms were highest among daily/ weekly methamphetamine users (56% vs. 39% occasional users and 27% non-users; p value < .01). Factors independently associated with depressive symptoms included methamphetamine use (adjusted OR = 1.5; 95% CI 1.1-2.3) and transactional sex (adjusted OR = 1.8; 95% CI 1.4-2.5). Based on growth curve modeling, methamphetamine was the most influential predictor of depressive symptoms, accounting for 10% of individual variance (p value < .01). Declines in depressive symptoms were noted for heavy users of a number of drugs, except for methamphetamine. For instance, those reporting daily/weekly heroin had a 3.38 point decline in CESD20 scores overtime (p value = 0.01). However, heavy methamphetamine users had much higher CESD20 scores and their scores remained high overtime (p value for change = 0.91). Conclusions: The prevalence of depressive symptoms among this cohort of HIV-negative and HIV-positive MSM was high, especially among frequent methamphetamine users. These findings suggest that reducing methamphetamine use may have the potential to reduce depressive symptoms.