Prescribers’ perspectives of pre-exposure prophylaxis

Our first paper looks at what pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) prescribers think about risk compensation. Calabrese et al 1 undertook a qualitative study in 2014/2015 interviewing 18 clinicians with PrEP prescribing experience in the USA. Three main themes emerged: (1) the role of the provider in supporting patients to make informed decisions about PrEP; (2) risk behaviour while taking PrEP does not fully offset PrEP’s protective benefit and (3) PrEP-related risk compensation is unduly stigmatised within the healthcare community and beyond. Participants were aged 31–53 years (mean 43 years), of which 72% were male and 44% identified as being from a sexual minority. Most (94%) of them were doctors and of these 77% were infectious disease specialists with extensive experience in managing patients with HIV (94% participants). Ninety-four per cent had prescribed PrEP as part of clinical practice and 36% as part of a research study. Interestingly, participants criticised other healthcare providers’ negative judgements of patients and the reluctance of some to prescribe PrEP due to the perceived potential of risk …