PMID- 30952548
OWN - NLM
STAT- MEDLINE
DCOM- 20200608
LR  - 20200608
IS  - 1743-6109 (Electronic)
IS  - 1743-6095 (Linking)
VI  - 16
IP  - 5
DP  - 2019 May
TI  - Substance-Linked Sex in Heterosexual, Homosexual, and Bisexual Men and Women: An 
      Online, Cross-Sectional "Global Drug Survey" Report.
PG  - 721-732
LID - S1743-6095(19)30423-0 [pii]
LID - 10.1016/j.jsxm.2019.02.018 [doi]
AB  - INTRODUCTION: Substance use in sexual contexts has received recent attention, but 
      it has mostly been restricted to men who have sex with men and the so-called 
      "chemsex" phenomenon. AIM: To explore the use of licit and illicit substances in 
      combination with sex in heterosexual, homosexual, and bisexual men and women; to 
      explore substance-linked sex (SLS) differences across sexual orientation and 
      sexes. METHODS: An international online self-selecting cross-sectional drugs 
      survey, the Global Drug Survey 2013 (n = 22,289), was conducted. Respondents were 
      asked about which drugs (including alcohol) they had had sex while on; how 
      frequently they used drugs to enhance sex; and how different drugs changed 
      different aspects of the sexual experience. We report descriptive statistics and 
      test differences between men and women and between different sexual orientations. 
      MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: The following outcome measures were recorded: (i) 
      Percentage of each group reporting last-year use of each drug with sex, (ii) Mean 
      subjective rating (-10 to +10) from each group for each drug on each aspect of 
      the sexual experience. RESULTS: SLS occurred across sexual orientations and in 
      both men and women. All groups reported that alcohol, cannabis, and 
      3,4-methylenedioxymethamphetamine (MDMA) were the most while commonly used drugs 
      with sex. Larger proportions of homosexual and bisexual men had sex while on most 
      drugs than heterosexual men (P < .001); and larger proportions of bisexual women 
      had sex while on most drugs than heterosexual women (P < .004). >/=20% of each 
      group reported having used drugs with the intention of enhancing a sexual 
      experience; larger proportions of homosexual and bisexual men reported this 
      behavior than heterosexual men (P < .001). There were clear dissociations between 
      the effects of different drugs on different aspects of the sexual experience; 
      although gamma-hydroxybutyric acid/gamma-butyrolactone and MDMA were rated consistently 
      highly. CLINICAL IMPLICATIONS: Men and women of different sexual orientations 
      must be considered when forming harm reduction and treatment strategies. However, 
      "chemsex" drugs were most commonly used by homosexual men; targeted messages to 
      this group should continue. STRENGTH & LIMITATIONS: Our study is highly novel; no 
      previous study has investigated the combination of sex with this range of drugs. 
      However, our survey is self-selecting, and some groups have a small sample size. 
      CONCLUSIONS: All groups reported SLS to some degree. However, differences in SLS 
      between men and women and sexual orientations were found. Alcohol, cannabis, and 
      MDMA were most commonly used with sex. "Chemsex" drugs were more commonly used by 
      homosexual and bisexual men than heterosexual men. Lawn W, Aldridge A, Xia R, 
      et al. Substance-Linked Sex in Heterosexual, Homosexual, and Bisexual Men and 
      Women: An Online, Cross-Sectional "Global Drug Survey" Report. J Sex Med 
      2019;16:721-732.
CI  - Copyright (c) 2019 International Society for Sexual Medicine. Published by Elsevier 
      Inc. All rights reserved.
FAU - Lawn, Will
AU  - Lawn W
AD  - Clinical Psychopharmacology Unit, University College London, London, United 
      Kingdom. Electronic address: will.lawn@ucl.ac.uk.
FAU - Aldridge, Alexandra
AU  - Aldridge A
AD  - School of Law, Royal Holloway, University of London, Egham, United Kingdom.
FAU - Xia, Richard
AU  - Xia R
AD  - Department of Medicine, SUNY Downstate College of Medicine, New York, NY, USA.
FAU - Winstock, Adam R
AU  - Winstock AR
AD  - Institute of Epidemiology & Health Care, Faculty of Population Health Sciences, 
      University College London, London, United Kingdom; Global Drug Survey Ltd, 
      London, United Kingdom.
LA  - eng
PT  - Journal Article
DEP - 20190402
PL  - Netherlands
TA  - J Sex Med
JT  - The journal of sexual medicine
JID - 101230693
SB  - IM
MH  - Adult
MH  - Bisexuality/statistics & numerical data
MH  - Cross-Sectional Studies
MH  - Female
MH  - Heterosexuality/statistics & numerical data
MH  - Homosexuality, Male
MH  - Humans
MH  - Male
MH  - Sexual Behavior/*statistics & numerical data
MH  - Sexual and Gender Minorities
MH  - Substance-Related Disorders/*epidemiology
MH  - Surveys and Questionnaires
MH  - Young Adult
OTO - NOTNLM
OT  - Chemsex
OT  - Harm reduction
OT  - Pleasure
OT  - Recreational drugs
OT  - Sex
OT  - Sexual orientation
OT  - SexualiZed drug use
OT  - Substance-linked Sex
OT  - Survey
EDAT- 2019/04/07 06:00
MHDA- 2020/06/09 06:00
CRDT- 2019/04/07 06:00
PHST- 2018/10/17 00:00 [received]
PHST- 2019/02/22 00:00 [revised]
PHST- 2019/02/27 00:00 [accepted]
PHST- 2019/04/07 06:00 [pubmed]
PHST- 2020/06/09 06:00 [medline]
PHST- 2019/04/07 06:00 [entrez]
AID - S1743-6095(19)30423-0 [pii]
AID - 10.1016/j.jsxm.2019.02.018 [doi]
PST - ppublish
SO  - J Sex Med. 2019 May;16(5):721-732. doi: 10.1016/j.jsxm.2019.02.018. Epub 2019 Apr 
      2.