Wodak A
Alcohol and Drug Service, St. Vincent's Hospital, Darlinghurst, NSW, Australia.
Bull N Y Acad Med. 1995 Winter;72(2):339-47.
This paper explicates the term, "harm reduction"; demonstrates that harm reduction has a long tradition; and uses one country, Australia, as a case study. Harm reduction can be understood as "policies and programs which are designed to reduce the adverse consequences of mood altering substances without necessarily reducing their consumption"; it is consistent with the best traditions of both medicine and public health. Although it is difficult to interpret trends in mortality from alcohol, tobacco, and illicit drugs to determine whether harm reduction in Australia "worked", the effectiveness of harm-reduction policies and programs in controlling HIV among injecting drug users (IDUs) seems extremely strong and suggests that benefits of harm-reduction programs for other drugs will become apparent in time.
本文阐述了“减少伤害”这一术语；表明减少伤害有着悠久的传统；并以澳大利亚这一国家为例进行研究。减少伤害可被理解为“旨在减少改变情绪物质的不良后果而不一定减少其消费量的政策和项目”；它与医学和公共卫生的最佳传统相一致。尽管很难解读酒精、烟草和非法药物导致的死亡率趋势来确定澳大利亚的减少伤害措施是否“奏效”，但减少伤害政策和项目在控制注射吸毒者中的艾滋病毒方面的有效性似乎非常显著，这表明减少伤害项目对其他药物的益处迟早会显现出来。
