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Subject Area

Neuropsychiatry

Article Type

Original Study

Abstract

Objective The aim of this study was to study the psychiatric comorbidities, signs, symptoms, and general functioning in HIV-infected/AIDS patients. Background Co-occurring psychiatric disease has direct clinical impact on patients infected with HIV, such as worsening quality of life and rapid progression of HIV/AIDS symptoms. Patients and methods This study was carried out in Shebin Elkom tropical hospital 'outpatient clinics' on 30 patients with positive HIV infection/AIDS patients. The tools used are mental-state examination, Hamilton Anxiety Scale, Hamilton Depression Scale, drug-of-abuse urine-screen test, and Karnofsky Performance Scale Test. Results There was a statistically significant association between the presence of depression and overall Hamilton Anxiety Scale scores (P < 0.001); depressed patients exhibited higher scores than nondepressed patients. On the other hand, there was no statistically significant association between the presence of depression and Karnofsky scale (P = 0.119). Conclusion HIV-positive individuals experience higher rates of all categories of mental illness compared with the general population. A wide range of factors may help explain this finding.

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