A comparison of recreational drug use amongst sexual health clinic users in London with existing prevalence data.

The objective was to give an overview of self-reported recreational drug use amongst attendees of sexual health clinics in London and compare this to existing datasets. Between December 2013 and March 2014, attendees of two sexual health clinics in London were surveyed. Data collected were: sexual history, smoking and alcohol and recreational drug use. Data were analysed using SPSS (version 21). A total of 1472 respondents were included; 778 (52.9%) men, 676 (45.9%) women and 3 (0.2%) transgender (15 [1.0%] did not answer). Mean age was 30.6 ± 9.0 years. A total of 339 (43.6%) men were men who have sex with men (MSM), and 18 (2.4%) women were women who have sex with women. Lifetime prevalence of use was: alcohol 94.1%; cannabis 48.5%; 'poppers' (volatile nitrites) 28.2%; cocaine 26.8% and 3,4-methylenedioxy-methamphetamine pills 23.2%. Our population had higher current popper, methamphetamine and mephedrone use than the Crime Survey of England and Wales but lower use of cannabis, poppers and Viagra than the European MSM Internet Survey. Global Drug Survey and Part of the Picture respondents' use were higher than our population for all drugs. Drug use in this population had a different pattern to general population surveys and studies involving only MSM.