Episode 28: The Intersection of Methamphetamine Use and HIV - Dr. Timothy Hall, UCLA

Trapped: Understanding Addiction

In this episode, I speak with Dr. Timothy Hall about the intersection of methamphetamine use and HIV in the LGBTQ+ community, particularly in men who have sex with men. Dr. Hall explains how methamphetamine use can influence HIV transmission as well as health outcomes for those who are HIV positive and how new HIV medications that can be taken every few months instead of daily may improve medication adherence for those struggling with a methamphetamine addiction. He also discusses the potential consequences of the changing landscape of the LGBTQ+ community.

Dr. Hall is a Health Sciences Assistant Clinical Professor at the Department of Family Medicine and Center for Behavioral and Addiction Medicine at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA. He has trained and studied at Harvard, UCSD, University of Chicago/NORC, Karlova Univerzita (Prague), the New Center for Psychoanalysis (Los Angeles), and UCLA. He is co-chair of the Human Sexuality & Anthropology Interest Group (HSAIG) of the American Anthropological Association. He has conducted long-term ethnographic research in Prague, Czech Republic, with four years of fieldwork since 1999. This project looks at processes of gay and bisexual men’s sexual identity formation and changes in the social and sexual networks of men who have sex with men (MSM) in the post-socialist era and since EU accession, with attention to HIV risk factors. He has also conducted fieldwork among non-gay-identified MSM in Los Angeles. His research interests include theories of sexual identity and the role of sexual identities and various forms of sexual-identity-based sociality in mediating risk for HIV, depression, and addictive disorders. He has worked as study physician on clinical trials of HIV pre-exposure prophylaxis (HTPN 073), the mStudy cohort study of HIV risk factors, and several trials of medications for methamphetamine use disorder (bupropion, varenicline, ibudilast, and bupropion/naltrexone). Dr. Hall is a psychiatrist with clinical interests in mood disorders, HIV psychiatry, personality disorders, and addiction.

Learn more about Dr. Hall at ​​https://www.uclahealth.org/providers/timothy-hall

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