Depressive symptoms over the course of HIV infection before AIDS

Abstract

The objective of this study was to describe the prevalence and course of depressive symptoms before AIDS in HIV-infected homosexual men. A descriptive and comparative analysis of data from HIV-infected and -uninfected homosexual men in the Multicenter AIDS Cohort Study was performed. The Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale (CES-D) was the primary measure of depressive symptoms. The prevalence of depressive symptoms and CES-D caseness estimates in the AIDS-free HIV-infected homosexual men were stable over time. Small differences between HIV seropositive and seronegative men were detected on the CES-D and on three of its subscales. These were mostly accounted for by less hope, and by more fearfulness, insomnia, and anorexia in the seropositive cohort. We concluded that there does not appear to be an overall increase in depressive symptoms in HIV-infected homosexual men from the time of infection until prior to AIDS. However, this group of men consistently report specific depressive symptoms more often. Implications of these findings for the clinical care of HIV-infected patients is discussed.

Clinical importance of HIV and depressive symptoms among veterans with HIV infection

“…Cross-sectional data also prevented us from measuring changes in depressive symptoms, although other researchers have reported that mood tends to remain stable among HIV-infected patients, even with increased HIV illness severity. 2,3,16 Second, while we did not find a significant problem with collinearity, such findings comparing the clinical significance of depressive and HIV or other physical symptoms need to be interpreted with caution because of the potential for overlap between depressive and physical symptoms. Although we found no significant interaction between depressive symptoms and HIV symptom count, our power to detect such interactions was low.…”

“…21 The CES-D has been widely used in studies of the relationship between HIV and depression. 2,3,13,14,22 We used the CES-D 10-item survey rather than a more comprehensive instrument such as the Diagnostic Interview Schedule in order to minimize respondent burden. Patients screened positive for significant depressive symptoms if they obtained a standard cut point of 10 or more out of a possible 30 points.…”

Persistence of psychiatric disorders in a cohort of HIV/AIDS patients in South Africa: A 6-month follow-up study

“…Findings of change in, or persistence of, psychiatric morbidity in HIV/AIDS have been mixed [3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11]. While some studies have found a modest increase in anxiety and depression on follow-up [3][4][5], other studies have found diagnostic status to be stable over time [6,7].…”

A horse in zebra stripes: a peculiar case of undetected end-stage AIDS

“…Studies have shown that the severity of depression correlates with the HIV disease progression [21,22]. Furthermore, depression was associated with lower medication adherence and higher mortality [23][24][25].…”