Prevalence of psychological trauma in HIV + patients

Abstract

ABSTRACT : HIV positive patients are disproportionately affected by psychological trauma. Psychological trauma co-occurres with negative clinical consequences such as depressive and anxious symptoms, making this population’s clinical profile even more severe. Therefore, the main objective of this study was to evaluate the prevalence of traumatic events in a sample of HIV patients and compare the clinical variables of those who indicated their HIV diagnosis as the main traumatic evento and those who reported other traumatic events. Method: 29 Patients with an HIV diagnosis were evaluated with regards to traumatic events and current symptoms. Furthermore, we compared patients who indicated their HIV diagnosis as the main traumatic event (PTSD-HIV) and those who reported other traumatic events (Non-PTSD-HIV) in the EGEP-5 scale. Using student’s t test for continuous variables and the chi-square test for categorical variables in independent samples, these two groups were compared. Pearson’s correlation analysis was used to determine the correlation among childhood trauma and clinical variables. Results: 13 patients (55,1%) of the whole sample were diagnosed with PTSD. 19 patients (65,5%) reported their HIV diagnosis as the main traumatic event in the EGEP-5 and 11 (57,89%) of these were diagnosed with PTSD. Results did not support the role of childhood trauma in reporting HIV diagnosis as traumatic. Pearson’s correlation showed a correlation between CTQ variables, psychotic symptoms and derealisation/depersonalisation. Conclusions: Those patients for whom HIV diagnosis is traumatic have a more severe clinical profile; exhibiting more depressive, anxious, dissociative, psychotic and trauma-related symptoms. Therefore, this population is in need of more psychological attention.