Neuropsychiatric aspects of HIV infection: a liaison psychiatry study

Abstract

All the HIV-infected patients having referred to our Liaison Psychiatry Service between October 1992 and June 1994 were considered in this study. Seventy patients underwent psychiatric assessment and medical/neurological evaluation. Forty-seven of these patients were also subjected to cognitive/neuropsychological examination by means of the Milan Overall Dementia Assessment (MODA). Depressive episodes, adjustment disorders and substance abuse were the most frequently encountered diagnoses. Taking into account neuropsychological data, we found that symptomatic patients performed worse on tests than did asymptomatic ones.

A randomized controlled trial of mindfulness-based stress reduction to manage affective symptoms and improve quality of life in gay men living with HIV

“…The TMS scale seems to be measuring a reflective, introspective selfawareness distinct from ruminative styles of self-focused attention or self consciousness, while the decentering scale in particular is negatively correlated with psychiatric symptoms and psychological distress as measured by the BSI (Lau et al, 2006). The frequency and severity of psychological morbidity accompanying HIV is often higher than in other disease populations (Grassi et al, 1997;Dew et al, 1997) or than in populations at risk for HIV (Ciesla & Roberts, 2001), and the lifetime prevalence of psychopathology is higher in those populations at risk for contracting HIV such as gay men than the general population (Fergusson et al, 1999;Herrell et al, 1999;Cochran & Mays, 2000;Cochran et al, 2003). That these challenges seem to be suppressing the very attentional capacities targeted in this intervention highlights the need for specific studies testing and adapting MBSR for this population.…”